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^NEILLE'S COMEDIES 



AS A MIRROR OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AND OF 
THE THEORIES OF FRENCH POLITE SOCIETY IN 
THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 



W. S. BARNEY, M. A. 



A Thesis Offered in Partial Fulfilment of the Require- 
ments for the Degree cf Doctor of Philosophy 
at Syracuse University. 



APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE 



C. W. Cabeen, Chairman, 
A. S. Patterson, 
A. C. Flick, 



I. J. Peritz, 
C. H. Carter, 
C. J. Kullmer. 



CORNEILLES COMEDIES 



AS A MIRROR OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AND OF 
THE THEORIES OF FRENCH POLITE SOCIETY IN 
THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 



W. S. BARNEY, M. A. 



A Thesis Offered in Partial Fulfilment of the Require- 
ments for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 
at Syracuse University. 



APPROVED BY THE COMMITTEE 
C. W. Cabeen, Chairman, I. J. Peritz, 

A. S. Patterson, C. H. Carter, 

A. C. Flick, C J. Kullmer, 



r 



ft 



V 



1 



^3> 






PresB of C. 0. BARNEY & SON 

Canaan, N. H. 

July, 1916 

Copyright 1916 by W. S. Barney 



CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

I. Introduction i-ix 

II. Contemporary Society. . . . 1-20 

III. Corneille's Personal Connection With the 

Polite Society of the Day 21-23 

IV. Timely Allusions and Local Color 24-41 

V. Preciosite in Love, Marriage, and Language. 42-58 

VI. Conclusion 59-60 

VII. Bibliography 61-65 



I. INTRODUCTION. 

Anything concerning the Great Corneille, who, according to the 
well-known and apt words of Voltaire, was called Great, not 
to distinguish him from his brother Thomas, but from the rest of 
men, cannot fail to be of interest by reason of his very great- 
ness. Light thrown on even a minor production of a really 
eminent author helps toward our composite appreciation of him, 
and cannot but illuminate to some extent his other writings. 
Not only was Corneille the real " Father of French Classic 
Tragedy", but he has sometimes been called the most romantic 
of the classic writers. The word Romantic has many meanings 
and conveys a slightly different concept to almost every authority 
who uses it, until it sometimes seems as though it only serves as 
a covering for a number of different theories, which may be 
used in turn for purposes of polemic by allies who yet differ 
among themselves, — just as the term pouvoir prochain was used 
by the Jesuits, as Pascal so wittily tells us in his first Provincial 
Letter. In this case, however, I think it safe to refer Cor- 
neille's romanticism to the spontaneity of emotion we find in 
some of his tragedies, — particularly to a certain egotism of love 
displayed by Rodrigue and Chimene in the Cid. For this 
reason, doubtless, Corneille was looked back to as a predecessor 
by the developing group of Romanticists in the early nineteenth 
century. 

Beside being to a degree a forerunner of Romanticism, and 
one of the greatest classic writers of tragedy, he has aroused 
true admiration by his philosophy of will and reason. An 
authority on practical psychology thinks it is "for having 
depicted the joys of self mastery, that Corneille is placed so 
high in the imagination of posterity". 1 

There is room, truly, in the greatness of Corneille for traces 
of varied influence. Classicism, Marivaudage, Romanticism, 
in turn, owe much to him, and can look back to him as the 
maitre. 

Until recent years very little attention has been given to the 
comedies of this great writer for various reasons. This part of 
his work has been overshadowed by his greater tragedy, and, 

1 Jules Payot: L'Education de la Volonte, 33me. ed., p. 125. 



VI 

too, his comedy, though being, as he reminds us, 1 original in 
that it has no comic characters of low degree to produce laughter 
(The character of Matamore in the Illusion Comique perhaps 
should be excepted), did not produce a perceptible change in the 
comedy that followed, but rather is akin to the comedy of the 
present day, and so is not valuable for the study of the evolution 
of this genre. More recently there has been a revival of interest 
in these comedies, principally, it seems, because of a feeling that 
no portion of the production of a great writer should be neglected 
on account of its possible contribution to the sum-total of our 
knowledge, — and this is especially true of anything connected 
with the actual life of society. 

Now comedy of all literary genres probably lies closest to real 
life. Corneille fully realized this: for he says in the Au Lecteur 
of the Veuve: "La Comedie n'est qu'un portrait de nos actions 
et de nos discours, et la perfection des portraits consiste en la 
ressemblance". 2 He avers, moreover, that he attempts to have his 
characters talk like persons in real life. Again in the Galerie du 
Palais he calls Comedy "un portrait des actions humaines". 3 
Also, in the Examen of the M elite, he mentions his "peinture de 
la conversation des honnetes gens". 4 These "honnetes gens" 
are, as we shall see, the peculiar ornaments of the society of Paris 
and Rouen. This polite society, centering around the gathering 
of the Hotel de Rambouillet in Paris, is in many ways the most 
important example of French polite society, and first caused it 
to be known generally as the most polished in the world, — a 
reputation now of nearly three centuries' standing. 

As the title would indicate, my purpose in this monograph 
is to show the extent of the introduction of contemporary life 
by Corneille into his Comedies, — going for parallels to original 
sources, particularly to Tallemant des Reaux and the abundant 
letters and memoires of the time, with consideration of the 
principal secondary authorities. I shall attempt to show the 
personal influence on Corneille reflected in the Comedies. 
"Ces comedies meritent pour elles-memes l'attention et Tetude: 
temoins de la jeunesse 'galante' et 'precieuse' de leur auteur, 
quand elles ne nous rappelleraient que ses premiers. gouts, elles 

1 V. Marty-Laveaux ed. of Corneille's Works (Hachette 1862), p. 138, Vol. I. 

2 Op. tit., I, 377. 

3 Op. tit., II, 27, 1. 174. 
^ Op. tit., I, 138. 



Vll 

seraient deja, sans doute, a ce seul titre, dignes de nous interes- 
ser". 1 I shall also try to present the relation of the Comedies 
adapted from the Spanish to their originals in the. matter of 
local color, and the manner in which precieuse or polite society 
influenced the theories of love and marriage and the language 
of the characters in the Comedies. As a basis for comparison 
I am compelled to give a brief description of the polite society 
of this part of the seventeenth century, because no one seems 
yet to have presented a strictly accurate view thereof. The 
true conception, I hope to show, lies between the optimistic 
views of Cousin, the authority whose opinions on the Hotel 
de Rambouillet are most generally accepted, and the more 
scientifically accurate, but still rather pessimistic, presentation 
of the recent investigator Magne, who is very evidently in- 
debted to Cousin for material, — as all who follow him must be. 
The chief error of prominent writers on the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet, which affords the most illustrious example of polite 
society in this period, is apparently the lending of too much 
weight to individual factors, which allows them to present only 
a part of the picture, however large that part may be. I have 
attempted to right certain lesser erroneous views concerning 
this society in the progress of my thesis, bringing out the fact 
that there were several institutions similar to the Hotel de 
Rambouillet, in contradistinction to Livet, 2 whose arbitrary 
distinction between the pedantic and gallant Precieuses 3 I shall 
show to be ill-founded. In the description of this society, I 
shall make as precise as possible the dates and the periods of 
development of its progressive tastes and theories. With regard 
to Corneille's personal connection with the Hotel de Rambouillet, 
I expect to show for the first time that, though the character 
of the influence is essentially the same, the whole first group of 
five Comedies is colored by Corneille's participation in the 
polite society of Rouen, instead of in that of Paris at. this time. 

After a thorough study of the relation between the Comedies 
and the life around them, including some problems of local 
color, I shall quote from the works themselves to show the 
extensive and chronologically progressive influence of precieuse 



1 Brunetiere : Histoire cle la Litterature Francaise Classique, II, 182. 

2 Precieux et Precieuses, p. 5. 

3 Preface to Dictionnaire des Precieuses. 



Vlll 

theories and style, and beyond this, Corneille's own naturalness 
and common sense. 

For a discussion of the dates of these comedies l those in- 
terested are referred to the notices placed before the several 
comedies in the Marty-Laveaux edition, and to Lanson: Cor- 
neille, p. 48, which I have taken as a standard for estimating 
the time when each play was actually produced, — always re- 
membering, however, that the production of the Suivante must 
be anterior to that of the Place Royale, because of a reference 
in the latter to Theante, 2 a character of the former. The period 
of production of these plays seems to have been 1628-1644, — 
years which coincide with the best period of the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet, so the society of this period mainly will be considered 
as contemporary, though change in such a considerable body is 
necessarily slow and not generally noted for five or more years 
after its inception. So at times I shall take the liberty of 
referring to the decade following this period as showing clearly 
the further development of tendencies already more or less 
evident. 

A list of the more important and useful works consulted will 
be found at the end. 

References to the comedies are made to the standard Marty- 
Laveaux Edition, — Series Grands Ecrivains de la France, Hachette 
& Co., 1862. I have found this, the best edition of Corneille's 
works, very helpful in the preparation of the articles on local 
allusions, but to follow out Pascal's comparison of originality 
and tennis, I may hope, aside from slight enlargements and 
improvements, to have at least placed the ball differently, and 
to have added something to the knowledge already at hand. 
Boileau says in the Preface to the 1701 edition of his works: 
"Qu'est-ce qu'une pensee neuve, brillante, extraordinaire? Ce 
n'est point, comme se le persuadent les ignorants, une pensee que 
personne n'a jamais eue, ni du avoir: c'est au contraire une pensee 
qui a du venir a tout le monde, et que quelqu'un s'avise le 

1 For a consideration of the dates of the first presentation of Corneille's 
early plays v. H. C. Lancaster, in Mod. Lang. Notes, Jan., 1915. We shall 
not consider the Comedie des Tuileries, as Corneille's part in it cannot be 
proved, and it seems to offer no special features not better exemplified in the 
entire specimens. Lanson omits it from his list. V. op. cit., pp. 48-49. 

2 Marty-Laveaux, II, 260, 1. 702. 



IX 

premier d'exprimer". 1 Several students of literature have indica- 
ted their opinion that these comedies mirrored the life about 
them, but, so far as I know, no one has attempted to show 
just how extensive this reflection is. Whether I have in a 
manner succeeded in doing so, the following pages will indicate. 

1 Boileau: Oeuvres Poetiques Illustr6es, p. 19. (Larousse.) 



II. CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY. 

As we approach the subject of how large a part contemporary 
society plays in the comedies of Corneille, it is beneficial to 
consider briefly the general state of France at the beginning of 
the seventeenth century, and to see then in what directions 
conditions were changing, and the elements of newness and 
influence in the polite society which was in power during the 
period under discussion. Much material, both new and second- 
hand, exists for the study of this society and much work has 
been done on it, — perhaps most notably by Cousin. 1 Therefore 
we shall give the main facts briefly and emphasize only the chief 
elements which offer occasion for comparison with the Comedies. 

As the sixteenth century in France drew to a close, religious 
intestinal warfare became more violent, and the condition of 
France as a whole may be likened to that of an armed camp. 
We may add that this camp was located in the more fertile spots, 
which had now become practically waste, both through the 
positive devastation always attendant on warfare, and the 
discouragement of renewed effort while the horizon was still 
dark and the outcome was yet to be foreseen. So, when Henry 
IV entered the lists, war became general, — "de parti a parti, de 
ville a ville, de chateau a chateau, les bourgeois, les ouvriers, et 
meme les paysans, gens paisibles, s'etaient battus. La con- 
sommation de vies humaines avait ete enorme. Les sieges, le 
passage des armees, les pillages, les saccagements, les incendies 
avaient multiplie les ruines: les 'fermes censes, et quasi tous les 
villages', dit une Declaration royale du 16 mars, 1595, etaient 
'inhabites et deserts': le labour avait cesse presque partout. 
II n'y avait revenus publics ou prives qui ne fussent 'en degat 
ou non-valeur'. Les routes etaient coupees de fondrieres: les 
ponts branlaient et croulaient: les talus et les digues des rivieres 
s'effondraient. La mer, ou le roi n'avait plus un navire, 
£tait livree aux pirates de toutes nations. Sur terre, sur mer 
les marchands couraient memes risques, 'La France et moi, 
ecrivit Henri IV, avons besoin de reprendre haleine'". 2 Henri 

1 We should mention also Roederer, Walcknaer, Livet, Colombey, Larrou- 
met, Lorin, Magne, etc. 

2 Histoire de France, by Ernest Lavisse and many others, 1911, Tome VI. 
Partie 2, pp. 1 and 2. V. excellent bibliography given in footnote. 






IV was an optimist, but it was very evident that destruction 
must halt now or the end of the nation (it was only beginning 
to have a sense of solidarity) was at hand. You remember the 
burning picture of the sad state of the country during the last 
years of the Valois drawn by d'Aubigne" in his Tragiques (1577- 
1594): 

"Our resting-places are foreign lands; 
The inland towns are become frontier towns; 
The village is on its defense, and our very houses 
Are as a rule garrisons and prisons. 
The honest burgher, model of his town, 
Sees his wife and daughter outraged before his very eyes, 
And falls under the insolent and merciless hand 
Which a while ago was held out to beg for bread. . . 
The hundred-years old peasant, whose hoary head 
Has become covered with snow as he followed his plough, 
Sees galloping from afar the blustering musketeer, 
Who with rude hand, mad with hunger and rage, 
Plucks out the gray hair which is the old man's pride, 
Because he has found nothing in the village". 1 

France was like an armed camp, and the manners and morals of 
the court of Henry IV were those of military adventurers, brave 
and bold, but coarse and dissolute. In December, 1608, Pierre de 
TEstoile, one of the most veracious chroniclers of the time, 
wrote in his diary, "A la cour on ne parle que de duels, puteries 
et maquerelages: le jeu et le blaspheme y sont en credit". 2 
Henry the Great's morals were bad and his manners were not 
polished. Taxes during his reign were necessarily heavy, but he 
succeeded, with the aid of helpers such as the very capable and 
honorable Sully, in bringing a sort of order into administration 
and finance, which perhaps was as needful as refinement. 

1 Van Laun: History of French Literature, II, 112. 

2 Memoires Relatifs a l'Histoire de France, XLV11I, 199. 

Du Bled thinks the court manners of Henry's reign were not so highly 
superior to those of the Valois, that there was almost the same licence of 
morals and language, "un melange de chevalerie et de grossierete, de raffine- 
ment et de rudesse, mille superstitions. . ." (p. 171). The regency 
which followed has gained great notoriety for carelessness in regard to morals. 
Even Lyse in the Illusion Comique says, "L'honneur d'un galant homme est 
d'avoir mattresses". This was considerably later. V. M arty-La veaux, II, 
509, 1. 1366. 



Along with this order came centralization. In place, Paris be- 
came center; in power, the king; in religion, the Roman Catholic 
Church. If any one thing can be said to mark the France of the 
seventeenth century, it is the unification of authority. The 
church had a somewhat stormy time at first, and the firm out- 
ward resistance of the Protestants ended only in 1628 with the 
fall of La Rochelle. Gradually the king became superior to his 
nobles after having been practically only their older brother. 
He drew the nobles to court. "Dans les premieres annees du 
dix-septieme siecle, le gentilhomme francais a deja quitte son 
manoir, portant, comme on l'a dit, ses pres et ses mouiins sur 
ses epaules". 1 The nobles came to court seeking influence; the 
king, having conquered the majority of the more powerful by 
combination, diplomacy, — or actual warfare where necessary or 
judicious — sometimes granted them a pension, thereby adding 
to their dependence and making them by their very presence 
at Paris an element in the centralization of authority there. 
Paris now became the standard of all France. Its society was 
acknowledged to be the most polished; its fashions, whether of 
speech or dress, spread to the provinces. The society of Rouen 
was quite similar, as we shall have occasion to show. The society 
of a city so far away as Montpellier was very like, but somewhat 
exaggerated, so as to become a caricature of the model. Golnitzi 
in his travels in 1655 remarks: "La place de la Camourgue, ou se 
viennent rendre par bandes toute la noblesse et mille beaux 
visages pour y pratiquer d'honnetes galanteries et y entendre 
les concerts et les serenades, est la marque trop visible de la 
belle humeur des habitants". "Le beau sexe ne contribue pas 
peu, de ce cote, a la gloire de Montpellier". 2 About the same 
time Chapelie and Bachaumont speak of the precieuses of that 
city as being with their "petites mignardises, parler gras et leurs 
discours extraordinaires " weak imitations of those of Paris. 3 
Though all but the few main post roads were in the poorest con- 
dition, and travel was necessarily slow and very uncertain on 
account of highwaymen, whose profession was not entirely dis- 
honorable, for it was taken up by adventurers and nobles who 
found time hanging idly on their hands after the stirring wars of 
the Ligue, — not to mention the common soldiers who, suddenly 

1 Hanotaux: La France en 1614, p. 343. 

2 Quoted by Hanotaux, op. cit., p. 43. 

3 Voyages de France (Chaumerot), I, 61. 



i 



disbanded and hardly knowing any other way of making a 
living, took to the highways, — in spite of all these hindrances 
there was much journeying to and from Paris. 1 

Looking along through the first half of the seventeenth century, 
we see the Catholic Church and the royal authority gradually 
unified and centered at Paris, the country gradually recover 
during a period of comparative peace, and polite society by 
degrees drop its brusque and soldierly manners and substitute 
to a certain extent courtly gallantry. The rise in importance of 
literature and the development of classic ideals, aided by in- 
fluences from Spain and Italy, and reaching its first climax in 
the tragedies of the great Corneille, had its roots in various soils, 
but one of its most potent influences, that of an informed polite 
society, tended, like all powers in France, to become centralized 
in Paris, and was unified in its best and most characteristic ele- 
ments in the Hotel de Rambouillet. 2 

The seventeenth century, beside being the century of author- 
ity, has often been described as the century of women. " Que leur 
influence ait ete heureuse ou funeste, les femmes tenaient a la 
cour de France un rang qu'elles n'ont occupe peut-etre nulle part 
ailleurs". The chatelaines of Provence along with the trou- 
badours had initiated the fundamental concepts of chivalry 
some five centuries before. One poet of that period instructed 
his lady that her care for politeness should go so far that "even 
the enemy of all your friends ought to find you civil-spoken". 3 
Then when supremacy in matters of politeness had passed to 
Italy along with the bards of southern France, it was brought 
back by a woman, Catherine de Medicis, and her train when 
she came to be queen in 1533. By the end of the century 
politeness had lapsed seriously owing to the circumstances we have 
just stated. Then once more came a woman from Italy, this 
time in the person of Marie de Medicis, to help swing the scale 
toward cultural polish. About the same time, too, came another, 
far younger, who was to have the, greatest influence toward the 
world-wide supremacy of France in polished manners. This 
was Catherine de Vivonne, who married in Paris at the age of 
twelve (as early marriages were then customary) the future 

1 V. Hanotaux, op. cit., pp. 21 and 22. 

2 For references to general authorities on the polite society of this period 
v. bibliography at end, and footnotes, passim. 

1 Hueffer: The Troubadours, p. 275, q. v. for this early period in general. 



Marquis de Rambouillet, later known as a diplomat and a 
spendthrift, but, notwithstanding this latter weakness, a worthy 
husband. About 1608 she is frequently said to have with- 
drawn from court society on account of the evils we have in- 
dicated. A recent investigator (Magne) considers her delicate 
health the cause, and says she had already seven children, which 
would make the date of her supposed retirement several years 
later. We are inclined to think both influences may have 
operated in the matter. Whatever the truth may be, her 
general character certainly was not in accord with the clouded 
atmosphere of court societ}^; for iconoclastic critics as well as 
contemporary authors of " biographies edifiantes", as they were 
very correctly termed, are for once unanimous in her praise. 
They attribute to her the purest character, which combined, as 
they admit and declare, severity, graciousness, and gaiety to an 
unusually happy degree. 1 

Between the years 1610 and 1617, 2 or possibly earlier, 3 she 
caused to be razed the Hotel d'O 4 on the street of St. Thomas du 
Louvre (which has since disappeared), — practically where the 
great department store, Les Grands Magasins du Louvre, stands 
today, and had built up from her own original plans the Hotel 
de Rambouillet, which differed in some respects from any building 
in Paris. 5 It was constructed outwardly of brick, stone, and 
slate, in not large but excellent proportions. Its main innova- 
tions otherwise consisted in putting the entrance at one side, in 
raising the ceilings, and especially in having broad windows the 
height of the room, but perhaps we hear most about its blue 
room. Tallemant des Reaux, a principal, though somewhat 
malicious authority who claims to have much of his material 
from the Marquise herself, says she was the first to think of 
painting a room any other color than red or brown. 6 This would 

X E. Magne: Voiture, I, 71, Scudery; Grand Cyrus (Quoted by Crane, 
French Society, p. 27), Tallemant des R,eaux; Historiettes, 3me. ed., Mon- 
merque, III, p. 211 ft. Chapelain "l'oracle de FHotel de Rambouillet et de 
FAcademie, le conseiller litteraire de Richelieu et de Colbert", calls her "la 
plus rare femme de nostre siecle sans exception". V. -Lett-res de Chapelain, 
ed. Tamizey de Larroque, I, 188. 

2 V. Tallemant, op cit., Ill, 211, Historiette de La Marquise de Rambouillet. 

3 V. Magne: Voiture, I, p. 62, n. 1. 

4 V. Sauval: Antiquites de Paris. 

5 V. Tallemant, loc. cit. 

6 V. Crane, op. cit., p. 6. 



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6 

seem to imply that the "Blue Room" was painted blue, but we 
are told elsewhere 1 a certain Flemish tapestry gave the room its 
name. 

Like many a present-day society woman, the Marquise, on 
the completion of her new residence, bethought her of gathering 
her socially-inclined friends around her, and, as we shall see, the 
Hotel de Rambouillet became the fashionable meeting-place of 
the best people at court and in the literary world. This is the 
first instance of the free mingling of the untitled with the nobility 
in polite society. 2 All were admitted, but banishment was a 
recognized penalty for coarseness. 

When we think of the Hotel de Rambouillet a certain in- 
definite and pleasing concept creeps into our minds, a floating 
fragrance, as it were, composed of the odor of literary sanctity. 
This, we may be sure, is an emanation from its later fame and 
influence. The society of the Hotel de Rambouillet, doubtless 
sprung from a very natural social desire on the part of the Mar- 
quise, whose retirement from court was perhaps due to the inde- 
pendence associated with proud birth and high connections, and 
possibly due in part to the craving of her delicate health for 
distraction, did not, as we have ample evidence, entirely devote 
its early years to literary discussion, nor did the later years 
kill an aptitude for fun. The Marquise was naturally lively, 
and Tallemant tells us she retained her taste for gaiety to old 
age. She was at the opening of these gatherings certainly not 
over thirty, and surrounded by persons at least as young. The 
gathering itself must be considered as not far along in its seven 
ages; for institutions as well as men have their distinguishing 
periods. A giovine cuor, tutto e gioco, as Mine, de Motteville 
was soon to say of Anne of Austria. 

Many were the playful diversions of the youth of the Hotel 
de Rambouillet. Disguises were an everyday occurrence. Once 
Mile. Paulet, an accredited frequenter of this society, which 
nicknamed her "the Lioness" on account of her tawny hair and 
powerful voice, came disguised as a vender of pastry wafers, and 

1 V . Magne, op. cit., I, p. 76, n. 

2 Unless we except the social group of Marguerite de Valois at the Chateau 
d'Usson. Du Bled says "elle accueille avec autant de distinction les lettres 
bourgeois que les grand seigneurs, pourvu qu'ils presentent leurs quartiers de 
noblesse intellectuelle et paient leur ecot en bons mots". V. Du Bled, pp. 
204, and passim. For a list of the lettered who gathered around her in Paris. 
v. G. Reynier, Le Roman sentimental avant l'Astree, pp. 169 ff. 



was only detected on departing. Speaking of this first period, 
Magne remarks, "Just as the Cardinal de Eichelieu has his 
buffoons and Boisrobert to spur them on, the Marquise has hers". 1 
One of these buffoons was Voiture who was introduced in 1625, 
and whose fame is bound up in that of the Hotel. Knowing 
that Julie de Rambouillet had proclaimed her admiration 
for Gustavus of Sweden, Voiture simulated an embassy from that 
monarch bearing his portrait and a letter. The letter gave 
the key to the joke after the portrait had been accepted in 
good faith. 2 On another occasion part of the joyous troupe 
en route to the Chateau de Pomponne masquerade as billeting 
officers of a regiment of cavalry. The owner of the Chateau, 
M. d'Andilly, appears at the gate in wrath for having soldiers 
quartered on him, but is reduced to stupefaction when Godeau, 
Julie's dwarf, bears down on him lance in rest. The dismayed 
gentleman is disillusioned by the approach of carriages bearing 
Mme. de Rambouillet and other ladies. The lance also proves 
to be of straw, so all is well. 

Practical jokes are plenty; the peculiar weaknesses of members 
are noted and made to bear tribute of merriment. Voiture 
himself receives a ewer of water on the head from Julie, because 
it is well known he detests getting wet. Against another member 
who has a presentiment he will die by tickling, the Marquise 
sends the violently gesticulating Chapelain to present a literary 
argument, and the pantomime as the victim tried to back away 
must have been amusing. One of the most farcical jokes was 
plaj'ed on the Count de Guiche, who formed an amiable butt 
for far more than his share. When visiting at the Chateau de 
Rambouillet, he ate very heartily of mushrooms, and his gor- 
mandizing suggested sweet revenge to the victim of a joke 
perpetrated by him. When he retired for the night, all his 
doublets were procured from his valet, to be afterward returned 
much reduced in size. The good man vainly tried to don them 
one after another on the morrow morn. Very naturally the 
mushrooms came to his mind as a contributing cause of his 
dilemma. A glance in the mirror revealed an unusual pallor. 
Everybody adds to the mushroom obsession, and the victim 
meanwhile is compelled to attend mass in a dressing-gown. 
As he emerges from church, he is heard to remark bitterly on the 

1 Magne: Voiture, I, 101. 

2 Magne, I, 218 and 219. 



8 



sadness of having to die at the early age of twenty-two from hav- 
ing eaten too manj^ mushrooms; he finally becomes almost 
delirious and calls for a physician, but the approaching catas- 
trophe is averted by a simple prescription which reads "Take 
some good scissors and rip your doublet". l 

This strong vein of comedy does not die out with the passing 
of youth, and we find the Marquise and Voiture, for example, 
exchanging practical jokes in the prime of the Hotel, — while 
what we call the younger set, and they knew as the "corps", was 
especially active in merriment during the winter of 1635. 

We have perhaps too fully emphasized the gayer side of this 
assembly in order to rectify popular impressions of the "Hotel", 
and in order to show its diversified membership, but buffoonery 
is only one side of the shield. Many other devices whiled away 
the idle hours of this company, — journeys to neighboring 
chateaux, with doubtless some appreciation of nature by the 
wsiy, though Mme. de Rambouillet is reported to have said that 
gentle spirits fond of letters hardly ever find their desideratum 
in the country, 2 — attendance at the theatre, especially to see 
comedies, which were in great favor. Comedies and tragedies 
were also presented and witnessed at the Hotel de Rambouillet. 
It was there that the famous Mondory first came into prominence 
through his acting in Mairet's Virginie. The ever-present feast 
with its accompaniment of violins helps speed the hours as they fly. 
Music and games, fireworks, even the tying of knots, are called 
into play; for time drags in the early seventeenth century, and we 
must remember that these gatherings in a smaller way took place 
after lunch as well as after dinner, and Mile, de Scudery in her 
Grand Cyrus informs us that every evening at Mme. de Ram- 
bouillet's were assembled her "dearest friends, who left only 
when propriety, and the necessity of sleeping willed that they 
should withdraw". 3 

This society depended to a considerable extent on novels to 
occupy the time. Unfortunately there were not so many novels 
then as now. The law of compensation, however, willed it that 
the few novels produced should be of ample length. In intricate 
combination and mere bulk they would outweigh a dozen of the 
present day. The habitues of the Hotel de Rambouillet, we know, 
were very fond of these pastoral and heroic romances. Somaize 

1 Magne, I, 142 ff. et. var. 

2 Sainte-Beuve: Causeries du lundi, XI, 47. 3 Cousin: Soc, I, 327- 



says of the Precieuses, "C'est encore une loy assez recue parmy 
elles de lire toutes les nouveautes, et sur tout les romans". 1 
Voiture, for example, was steeped in their themes. 

The first and most popular of these romances was the Astree 
which appeared from 1607-1628, in five parts averaging 1,000 
pages each. This novel, sometimes called the father of French 
novels, because it is the first finished example of the genre in 
France, and contains most of the elements of both romantic and 
comic novels, had been influenced by both Spain and Italy, as 
was the Hotel de Rambouillet itself, and at once became the 
manual of polite society. Its intricate discussions and examples 
of platonic love became the model of this society. Its rules of 
love, plainly influenced by those of the courts of love of the Middle 
Ages, were these: 

1. It is needful to love to excess. 

2. To love only a single person. 

3. To have no other passion but love. 

4. To be ambitious only to please the loved one. 

5. To love with disinterested love. 

6. To defend one's shepherdess. 

7. To find all perfect in her. 

8. To have no other will but hers. 

9. To have only one heart with her. 

10. To live only in her. 

11. To look forward only to the honor of loving her. 

12. To engage to love her always. 2 

The general interpretation of these rules by the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet resulted, — at least outwardly and distinctively, — in pla- 
tonic love. Love became largely an exercise of the imagination. 
The idea of long service in love was exemplified fully in Julie 
d'Angennes, who had decided not to be married 3 and kept her 
future husband at a very respectful distance for several years, 
and then only capitulated when heavy artillery in the form of an 
original book of birthday poems was brought up. The Marquise 
de Sable (1599-1678), whom Cousin describes as the "typede la 
parfaite precieuse", — i. e., one of the most accomplished mem- 
bers of polite society, — also well personifies the" theory of man's 

1 V. Somaize: Dictionnaire des Precieuses, I, 119. 

2 Le Breton: Le Roman en France au 17me. siecle. pp. 22-23. 

3 Tallemant: Historiettes, III, 242-243. 



10 



prostration before woman. "Elle etait persuadee que les 
hommes pouvaient sans crime avoir des sentiments tendres pour 
les femmes: que le desir de leur plaire les portait aux plus grands 
et aux plus belles actions, leur donnait de Tesprit et leur inspirait 
de la liberalite, et toutes sortes de vertus: mais que, d'un autre 
cote, les femmes qui etaient l'ornement du monde, et etaient 
faites pour etre servies et adorees des hommes, ne devaient 
souffrir que leurs respects. 

"Cette dame, ayant soutenu ses sentiments avec beaucoup 
d'esprit et une grande beaute, leur avait donne de l'autorite 
dans son temps : et le nombre et la consideration de ceux qui ont 
continue a la voir ont fait subsister dans le notre ce que les 
Espagnoles appellent fucezas (finezas?)". 1 This passage shows 
that Mme. de Sable not only well represented the sentiments 
of the Hotel de Rambouillet on love, but also helped to keep up 
the affected terms of expression which were soon to characterize 
the degenerate members of polite society, — the erudite branch 
of the false Precieuses. We are also told that Mme. de Ram- 
bouillet was very skilful in modifying blazing passion, so that 
it only retained the glow of friendship, — and this is the dis- 
tinctive attitude of the Hotel. " Friendship was hardly below 
love," as Cousin says. 2 

Along with this "honnete amitie", as this platonic affection 
was termed, and from the high position in which it held women, 
and from the equality which all, — men or women, — held in 
this society, naturally developed politeness and polish and 
gallantry. This gallantry coming in part from Spain, appears in 
a large number of letters exchanged between the opposite sexes 
in this group, and sufficient proof of its existence can be furnished 
by even a hasty reading of the works of Voiture, for example. 
The ideal man of this group was, as we might infer from the 
preceding, the "honnete homme" (seventeenth century gentle- 
man). The foremost living example of just this period is thus 
described to us in a work of the middle of the century: . 
"The most remarkable thing about him (The name of this 
paragon was the Due de Bellegarde, a sort of Maecenas of the 
day, and, needless to remark, a frequenter of the Hotel de 
Rambouillet) was, that never man had more intellectual polite- 
ness than he. Gallantry was born with him, civility is insepara- 

1 Mme. de Motteville: Memoires, I, 13. 
a Cousin: Mme. de Sable, 31. 



1.1 

ble from him, and, although he be of a somewhat serious temper, 
his conversation is very agreeable. It is true that he is some- 
what particular and that he hardly ever speaks in those noisy 
conversations where there are many people. If he gives a 
banquet (collation), he gives it with such good grace, with such 
order and with such a polished manner, that it is always thought 
it costs him less than half it does; and also, in all the things 
he undertakes, be it games for prizes, music, dancing, excursions, 
or festivals, there is always something surprising and unusual; 
so that all with one accord have given him the reputation of being 
the most polished of all men. . . ."* That is the ideal 
society man of the time. 

It is almost self-evident that conversation would here be 
developed to a fine art. The Marquise de Rambouillet was born 
in, and married into, both Italian and French diplomatic circles. 
She was also by natural talents and disposition peculiarly fitted 
to put frequenters at their ease. She was ably assisted in this by 
her amiable daughter Julie. Everything here would seem to 
combine to foster conversation — diplomacy, close acquaintance, 
the free meeting of the sexes, leisure, rivalry — the Marquise even 
divided the guests into small groups by means of screens, thus 
mechanically producing an atmosphere of confidence and seclu- 
sion which is provocative of the gentle art. War, religion, 
politics, newly-discovered spots on the sun, mild scandal, 
literature, — all were ordinary topics of conversation. 

We have purposely left the literary side of this society to the 
end, as being one of the most important and definite factors 
of its esthetic development. Gallantry, polish, skill in con- 
versation, general culture, may be to an extent considered as 
facts that fade with the ink of contemporary chronicles; they 
are elusive elements, but literature is preserved to be judged 
by our own standards. 

Mme. de Rambouillet, we are told by her admirers, could 
converse on any subject, however learned. Tallemant relates 
that she was turned from learning Latin in order to read Virgil in 

1 V. Cousin: Soc, I, 310. Voiture has also left an example of another sort 
of politeness which we think could hardly be duplicated at present. In a 
letter he says, "I, the undersigned, confess I owe to M. de Balzac the sum of 
800 crowns for the pleasure he has done me in letting me lend him 400" (!), 
V. Colombey Salons, etc., pp. 45 and 46, and Voiture: Lettres (Uzanne). 
Intro. XXVIIl. 



12 



the original, by illness, and later took up Spanish instead. Many 
of her circle had traveled in England, Spain and Italy, and more 
were the learned and literary lights of the land. In this informed 
company the letters of Balzac the reformer of prose were read — 
as in fact letters from all the absent, especially from the great 
warriors like Conde. Judgment was here passed on the sonnets of 
Andilly, the poems of Godeau, Voiture, Cotin, — of Malherbe, the 
lawgiver of poesy, — to mention only a few of the better known. 
Chapelain's dull epic on the Maid of Orleans was considered just 
as dull then as now. The great Corneille here read his tragedies 
to an admiring and appreciative audience. This gathering came 
to be a highest court in matters of literature, and in case of need 
there could be called in the judgment of the Great Mademoiselle, 
who also ruled in court society. 

As the Hotel became more firmly established, literary enter- 
tainments were the order of the day. Voiture invented the 
rondeau; this was followed by the poetical enigmas of Cotin, 
to be superseded by end-rhymes in which the remainder of the 
verse was to be filled out. Later yet pen-pictures or mutual 
" portraits", as they were called, in which every lady possessed 
a complexion "where lilies vie with roses", became the rage and 
so on down a long list. 

Now, as the society of this first half of the century had developed 
and become more cultured and gallant, the balance tipped to 
over-refinement of thought and expression, commonly spoken 
of as Preciosite, because sometime before 1650, members of 
polite society called themselves precieux and precieuses, 1 and 
polite society was developing this tendency to over-refinement 
along all lines, — especially those of love and intellect and ex- 
pression. As in nineteenth-century Romanticism and many 
other important movements of similar nature, it is difficult to 
say who were the originators. "De tout temps on a veu des 
assemblies, de tout temps on a veu des femmes d'esprit, et par 
cette raison il est vray de dire que de tout temps il y a eu des 
pretieuses", 2 says Somaize. One great class of the Precieuses 
was the intellectual or pedantic, who, of course, had always 

1 V. ironical definition in Abbe de Pure: La Pretieuse (in Crane Soc, p. 160) 
"La Precieuse de soi n'a point de definition: les termes sont trop grossiers 
pour bien exprimer une chose si spirituelle " . 

2 Somaize: Diet., I, 21; for early examples v. Du Bled: Soc. 216, 222. 



13 



existed as individuals. Probably at least as early as 1622 we 
have described a precieuse gathering in Francion. 3 The chief 
character in this novel is led to the house of Luce, who was "la 
femme du meilleur discours qui se put voir", and whose com- 
panions were "des plus beaux esprits du monde". Even here 
we find "le language le plus galimatias". Luce is told by one of 
her admirers present that "mon coeur flottera toujours dans la 
mer de deux cents millions de pensees, a l'appetit glouton de 
l'ouest et sud-ouest de mes desirs, jusqu'a tant que je vous aie fait 
paraitre (belle beaute) que je vous adore avec une devotion si 
fervente", and here, as if for proof that preciosite was then in 
its youth, he could find no more to say. The conversation soon 
takes almost exactly the same turn as in that between the two 
Marquises in the Misanthrope, or as in the Precieuses Ridicules, — 
full of effusive and flattering praise for another's costume, 
bravery and gallantry. One says to another in approved precieux 
style, "vos cheveux sont si bien frises, que je pense que les ames 
qui y sont prises s'egarent dedans comme en une labyrinthe''. 
In reply, by way of return, his interlocutor calls him "la seule 
pierre calamite de tous ces courages de fer qui vive a la cour". 
"J'entends parler des dames qui, nonobstant leur durete, sont 
navrees des fteches de vos yeux, et n'ont point de feu dont votre 
beaute n'ait ete l'allumette". Here we have a first rate " pointe", 
apparently just antedating Marini's Adone, which is often con- 
sidered the first great source for this sort of word-juggling. This 
is also some time (perhaps three years) before Voiture is in- 
troduced to polite society at the Hotel de Rambouillet. In this 
same account from Francion are given many characteristically 
precieuse expressions, — some of which have become a part of 
modern French idiom, — such as, — vous vous piquez de . . . 
vous etes en bonne posture chez, etc., 1 which seem to show that 
preciosite had reached a consciousness of one of its principal 
duties, which was to invent new styles of expression. 

"Elles sont encore fortement persuadees qu'une pensee ne 
vaut rien lorsque elle est entendue de tout le monde, et c'est 
une de leurs maximes de dire qu'il faut necessairement qu'une 
pretieuse parle autrement que le peuple, afin que ses pensees 
ne soit entendues que de ceux qui ont des clartes audessus du 
vulgaire: et c'est a ce dessein qu'elles font tous leurs efforts 
pour detruire le vieux language, et qu'elles en ont fait un, non 

1 Sorel: Francion, 212. . ™ , a , ^ . nnn _. 

' s Charles Sorel: Francion, pp. 209 ff. 



14 



seulement qui est nouveau, mais encore qui leur est particulier". 1 
Whether Somaize is right or not in his analysis of their motives, 
the fact of the change of language remains. "L'objet principal, 
et qui occupe tous leurs soins, c'est la recherche des bons mots et 
des expressions extraordinaires'. 2 "Elles ont quasi une langue 
particuliere, car a moins que de les pratiquer, on ne les entend 
pas". 3 

Marini's Adone appeared in 1623 and added the Italian in- 
fluence of concetti, which are like the French pointes. Theophile 
de Viau's Pyrame et Thisbe (presented 1619) is often considered 
the first precieuse literary work, on account of the much-ridiculed 
couplet: 

Ah ! voici le poignard qui du sang de son maitre 
S'est souille lachement! II en rougit, le traitre! 
Spanish influence, too, was reaching an effective stage at the 
end of this first quarter of the seventeenth century. Gongora's 
paraphrases early in the century resemble extremely some of 
those gathered later in the century by Somaize. 

In 1628, Balzac thus describes a pedantic woman: "when she 
is in the depths of other subjects she tells me insults in Greek, 
and accuses me of exaggeration and affectation. She desires 
there should be at least four pointes in two verses. She plans to 
rehabilitate strophes and antistrophes. She laj^s epic and drama- 
tic poetry under rules, and says she has not enough patience to 
endure a comedy which is not within the rule of twenty-four hours, 
which she sets out to have published through all France. If I had 
a mortal enemy, there is the wife I should wish him, in order to 
take good vengeance on him". 4 Balzac had decided opinions on 
learning for women, as we may see, for example from his letter 
of Mar. 22, 1628, — " II y a longtemps que je me suis declare contre 
cette pedanterie de l'autre sexe, et que j'ai dit que je souffri- 
rais plus volontiers une femme qui a de la barbe, qu'une femme qui 
fait la savante". Evidently from these and other similar expres- 
sions in his letters, there were examples of such women before 
his eyes, — as Mile, de Gournay, whom we shall consider shortly. 
Somaize has an opportune remark on the subject of whether we 
ought to include the pedantes among the precieuses. "Je scay 

1 Somaize, I, 119; v. esp. 22, quotation, p. 158. 

2 Abbe de Pure: op. cit., v. Crane, 166. 

3 Crane: 171. 

4 V. Lanson: Lettres Choisies, p. 104; Somaize, I, 23. 



15 



bien que Ton me demanclera si toutes les femmes d 'esprit sont 
pretieuses: je reponds a cette question que non, et que ce sont 
seulement celles qui se meslent d'escrire ou de corriger ce que les 
autres escrivent, celles qui font leur principal de la lecture des 
romans, et surtout celles qui inventent des facons de parler 
bizarres par leur nouveaute et extraordinaires dans leur sig- 
nification. J'adjouteray a cela qu'il faut encore qu'elles soient 
connues de ces messieurs que Ton appelle autheurs". This 
definition, though apparently somewhat strict, would exclude 
hardly any of the well-known pedantic women of the period. 
So we are compelled to think that we may generally reckon the 
"pedantes" as Precieuses, and that Livet's statement that 
"Les Precieuses se divisent en deux classes bien tranchees: 
Precieuses galantes et Precieuses pedantes", 1 is somewhat too 
dogmatic; for, as we shall have occasion to note, precieuse ideas 
of love, and pedantry, were often united in the same person. 
Also, embracing, as they did, practically the whole of refined and 
polished womanhood, it is not to be wondered at that u Les 
limites de leur empire sont aussi vastes qu'il est de grande 
etendue: du cote d'orient il est borne par l'lmagination, du 
couchant par le Tendre, du nord par les costes de la lecture, et 
du midi par la coquetterie". 2 Perhaps as an interpretation of the 
author's meaning, we may say that these limits signify the rise 
of love in the intellect (imagination), its continuance and decline 
in a mild platonic affection (Tendre), and also that the colder 
side of precieuse society was the pedantic (Lecture), while the 
warmer was marked by coquetry. The character of the galantes 
precieuses is indicated by what we have said on love in general, 
and on Julie d'Angennes and Mme. de Sable. Th8 intellectual 
theory of love was perhaps first expressed by the learned fore- 
runner of pedantic preciosite, Mile, de Gournay. As early as 15S9, 
she wrote in her Promenoir de M. de Montaigne, "Les discours 
qui precedent et qui suivent sur l'amour ne m'echapperoient 
point, vu mon sexc, quelque modestie qui les accompagne, s'ils 
ne tendoient a spiritualiser ses passions et son commerce hors le 
mariage, autant qu'il est en mon pouvoir, puisqu'on ne peut 
esperer de les bannir du tout. Or, suivant mon fil, il y a plus de 
fruit a cueillir en la pratique amoureux pour l'esprit que pour lej 
corps". 3 This idea grew in the precieux mind and went on to it 

1 Somaize, Preface, I. xvj. 2 Somaize, I, 119. 

3 Quoted by Livet : Precieux et Precieuses, 267 and 268. 



16 



extreme development. Somaize says their fourth moral maxim 
is to "dormer plus a himagination a l'egard des plaisirs qua 
la verite. et cela par ce principe de morale que l'imagination ne 
peut pescher reellement ".' From this intellectuality of love 
grew the supposed repugnance to marriage which has generally 
been considered an article of the precieuse faith. Later than 
the period with which we are concerned it will appear graphically 
in the "Dangerous Sea" of the Carte de Tendre. Human nature, 
however, is compelling, and we may well believe that "malgre la 
repugnance que quelques imitatrices de Julie d'Angennes eprou- 
vaient a se marier. bien peu restaient filles qui pouvaient faire 
autrement". 2 Somaize treats as absurd the idea that "les 
pretieuses sont des filles qui ne se veulent point marier'". 3 It 
seems, after consideration of the evidence, that the idea of 
precieuse repugnance to marriage probably had foundation in a 
few examples, and the rest has been built up from inference with- 
out direct proof. We do know, however, that precieuses and 
precieux played at love, writing amorous epistles and verse to 
one another when the thought of marriage was farthest from their 
minds. 

From the intellectual conception of love grew also the anatomy 
of love, a liking for more or less psychological analysis of one's 
own emotion. The different phases of love are enumerated 
and those phases have their divisions, as the different cities on 
the Carte de Tendre. This is in parallelism with the tendency 
lo analyse other emotions, and here, too, gallant and pedantic 
precieuses join hands. 4 

So far. the indications we have given point to a spontaneous 
growth on French soil of a certain delicate regard for intellectual 
love and for literature, which soon became affectation, — as too 
great delicacy is prone to do. This state of affairs was doubtless 
much assisted in its development by both Italian and Spanish 
influence, as were almost ail the fashions of polite society at this 
time. The date when delicacy became affectation is indefinite. 
For convenience we. with Faguet. may place it at 1630, and 
Corneille's comedies will at least give evidence of a gradual 
change as we pass from the earlier to the later, corresponding 

1 Somaize, I. 157. 

2 Livet. in Somaize, I, xvj. 

3 Somaize. I. 23. 

4 V. diff. kinds of esteem, Somaize, I, 121; sighs, p. 131. 



17 

roughly with the preponderance of the influence of Julie d'An- 
gennes in the society of the Hotel de Rambouillet, which society 
had finally spread its sway through the provinces to a con- 
siderable extent before the Menteur and the Suite appeared. In 
general we must bear in mind that there are the true Precieuses 
and the false: that the true are members of the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet in the main, and the false are outside. The imitation 
and exaggeration of the defects of the former by the latter date 
the imitators slightly later than the real Precieuses. Chapelain 
thought at least as late as 1638 that unreasonable affectation in 
expression had not yet reached this gathering. He wrote to 
Balzac, 1 " Vous ne sauriez avoir de curiosite pour aucune chose qui 
le merite davantage que THotel de Rambouillet. On n'y parle 
point savamment, mais on y parle raisonnablement, et il n'y a 
lieu au monde ou il y ait plus de bon sens et moins de pedanterie". 
He apparently realizes the existence of false Precieuses. "Je 
dis de pedanterie, Monsieur, que je pretends qui regne dans 
la cour aussi bien que dans les universites, et qui se trouve aussi 
bien parmi les femmes que parmi les homines. Car aim que 
vous le sachiez, une partie de nos dames se sont erigees en 
savantes et font de cette qualite une partie de leur coquetterie". 2 
Chapelain himself was a true Precieux. 3 Mme. de Rambouillet 
"est le type le plus pur et le plus eleve de la vraie precieuse, dans 
le meilleur sens du mot". As to groups, then, those outside of 
the Hotel de Rambouillet and those which grew up later 4 carried 
preciosite to absurdity. Within the famous gathering a slow 
transformation was taking place in the same direction. Up to 
1630, we may say gallantry as defined by Yaugelas was the ideal. 
" . . . un compose ou il entrait du je ne sais quo:, ou de la 
bonne grace, de l'air de la courtoisie, de i'esprit, du jugemsnt, 
de la civilite, et de la gaiete, le tout sans contrainte, sans affecta- 

1 V. Lettre of Mar. 22, 1638, CLI of ed. Tamizey de Larroque, I, 215 fif. 

2 V. also, farther on, his ideas on the Hotel d'Auchy. This tends to show 
Cousin makes an omission when he fails to see the false Precieuses alongside 
the true. 

3 Chapelain's fondness for the Hotel de Rambouillet may be gathered from 
a perusal of his letters. Perhaps his most markedly precieuse letter is the 
one "A La Princesse Julie", CCXVII of ed. cit., 1, 312. Like other clear- 
sighted men of his time, — our own Corneille, for instance — he seems to have 
appreciated the very patent absurdities of the pedantic Precieuses, but to have 
at intervals fallen a victim to the insidious precieux style, though his letters 
for the most part are very straightforward. 

4 The " Academic" of Mme. d'Ochy or Auchy was contemporary. 



18 

tion et sans vice". 1 This may fairly be said to have been the 
ideal of the Hotel de Rambouillet during the early years of its 
existence, and was not lost sight of until the active members 
had dispersed. But, up to the development of what we know as 
preciosite, there was partly from foreign influence, a certain 
fadeur and declamation in expression of the emotions,— par- 
ticularly of love. Between 1630 and 1640 preciosite in the sense 
of artificiality was gaining the upper hand even within the Hotel 
de Rambouillet. After 1640 when the younger daughter of the 
house, Angeiique, became influential, and especially after the 
marriage of Julie, preciosite became apparently a predominating 
influence. Cousin tells us Angeiique "represente particuliere- 
ment le cote precieux de l'Hotel de Rambouillet". 2 "II est cer- 
tain que Mile, de Rambouillet porta jusqu'a Pexces et jusqu'au 
desagr6*ment la 16gere preciosite de sa mere". 3 In the Grand 
Cyrus we are told concerning her that "il y a si peu de choses 
qui la satisfassent, si peu de personnes qui lui plaisent, un si 
petit nombre de plaisirs qui touchent son inclination, qu'il 
n'est presque pas possible que les choses s'ajustent jamais si 
parfaitement qu'elle puisse passer un jour tout a fait heureuse en 
toute une annee, tant elle a Timagination delicate, le gout exquis 
et particulier et l'humeur difficile a contenter". 4 Angeiique is, 
then, a Precieuse by temperament. Tallemant says of her 
"II y eut un gentilhomme qui dit hautement qu'il n'irait point 
voir Mme. de Montausier tandis que Mile, de Rambouillet y 
serait, et qu'elle s'evanouissait quand elle entendait un mechant 
mot. Un autre, en parlant a elle, hesita longtemps sur le mot 
d'avoine, avoine, avene, aveine. 'Avoine, avoine, dit-il, de par 
tous les diables! on ne sait comment parler ceans". 5 So we 
have preciosite in the ordinary acceptance of the term, finally 
established in the Hotel de Rambouillet. We may naturally 
expect Corneille, whose closest connection with the Hotel is 
during the three or four years after 1640, to show in his last 
comedies, even though modelled on the Spanish (which contained 
no contrary influence), some trace of the prevailing trend. 

We have considered polite and precieux influence chiefly with 
reference to the Hotel de Rambouillet, because that gathering, 

1 Vaugelas, II, 208. V. Crane, notes, 271. 

2 Cousin: Soc, I, 276. 3 hoc. cit, 277. 

4 Le Grand Cyrus, 1. 1, liv. 1 : quoted by Cousin: Soc, I, 277, etc. 

5 Tallemant: ed. cit. Ill, 253. 



19 

of all those of Paris, was most representative, because Corneille's 
connection with it and with some of its frequenters is certain, 
and the society of Rouen, which must have occupied his mind 
as he wrote his earlier comedies, differed from it in no essential 
manner. Livet says of other polite groups in Paris, "nous avons 
vainement cherche les maisons hospitalieres qu'on pouvait 
preferer a celle-ci ou frequenter dans le meme temps". 1 He 
also gives the Marquise's success as proof that there were no 
other such societies. It is true that in no other society did 
noble birth, literary talent, and overflowing gaiety meet in such 
happy union, but contemporary with the Hotel de Rambouillet 
was the "Academic" of the Viscountess d'Auchy, where the 
disgruntled men of letters met to deliver tedious harangues, and 
which Chapelain described as the "antipathe" 2 of the more 
famous group. Again he somewhat contemptuously refers to 
it as follows: "Dans cette academie femelle, les femmes ne font 
que recevoir, et les hommes y donnent tou jours. Elles y sont 
juges des matieres et tiennent la place en ce lieu qu'elles tiennent 
dans les carouzels. II y a foule de participants et tout est bon 
pour l'appetit de ces fees qui, la plupart, ont beaucoup d'aage 
et peu de sens. C'est une des nouveautes ridicules de ce temps ". 3 
There were other gatherings where politeness and gallantry were 
prized. About 1640, as Magne tells us, "l'Hotel de Rambouillet 
devient, de plus en plus, le centre des plaisirs parisiens. II 
fusionne avec les Hotels de Cond6, d' Orleans, de Liancourt, de 
Clermont et du Vigean. Toutes les jeunes filles et tous les 
jeunes gentilhommes qui hantent ces demeures s'y reunissent 
et forment ce que Ton considere comme le plus raffine de la 
societe frangaise". 4 As we might expect from the numerous 
proofs of the interest and pleasure taken by members of the 
Court in the circle of the Marquise, court society was becoming 
equally polished. In 1636 we read "II n'y a point de lieu ou la 
conversation se voie avec tant d'eclat et d'appareil que dans le 
Louvre, lorsque les reines tiennent le cercle ou plutot qu'elles 
etalent comme un abrege de tout ce qu'on a jamais vante des 

1 Precieux et Precieuses, p. 5. 

2 Lettre of Mar. 22, 1638, ante cit. 

3 Lettre CLIII, p. 222, Vol. I. 

4 Magne: Voiture et les Annees de gloire de 1' Hotel de Ram., 192-193. 
Others of the best were those of Mile, de Montpensier, le Cardinal de Richelieu, 
Albret, etc. 



20 



merveilles de ce monde". "Ce n'est point mentir de dire que 
quand on se trouvent devant ces grandes lumieres, il n'y a guere 
de coeur si peu hardi qui ne se sente secretement tente du desir 
de devenir un honnete homme". 1 Also the Chateau de Chantilly 
offered similar advantages. "Si la cour de Fontainebleau sur- 
passoit celle de Chantilly en nombre, celle-ci ne lui cedoit nulle- 
ment en galanterie et en divertissements". 2 Perhaps enough 
has been said to show that this tendency of all good society was 
in the same direction, and that these "honnetes gens" 3 whom 
Corneille proposes to show us as they really are, compose this 
better part of the society of Paris, — mirrored in that of the 
provinces — and particularly of Rouen. 

There were other less commendable elements of society in 
Paris during the second quarter of the century, but they receive 
only fleeting mention in the Comedies, and will be referred to 
briefly as the allusions seem to demand. There were narrow, 
dirty streets, and villains of various rank abroad, so that no 
honorable person dared to be out in Paris after ten o'clock at 
night. There was much gambling in which ladies took a consider- 
able part. Love frequently changed its aim or passed the usual 
limits. Poets met in cabarets of low degree. 4 But Corneille 
has a moral aim and will show us little of the inferior. He will 
rather be concerned with the fashionable quarters and timely 
happenings, for he is thoroughly convinced of the value of 
allusion to contemporary things and tinged with the prevailing 
tenets of the polite society of Rouen and Paris. 

1 Faret: L'Honnete Homme, etc., 1636, quoted by Hanotaux, p. 200. 

2 Montpensier : Memoires, I, 109, n. 

3 V. Marty-Laveaux, I, 377. 

K V . Colombey, Magne, Hanotaux, etc. 



III. CORNEILLE'S PERSONAL CONNECTION WITH 
THE POLITE SOCIETY OF THE DAY. 

What was Corneille's personal connection with the society 
we have just described? As to his connection with the society of 
Paris and especially with the Hotel de Rambouillet, it seems 
we must admit it was brief and slight 1 during the years when 
his first six comedies were being presented. We know that he 
was not elected to the French Academy until 1647 after two 
unsuccessful candidacies, and that his lack of previous success 
was apparently caused by his character of non-resident of 
Paris. 1 He did not become a bona fide resident of that city 
until 1662. 2 The first date of Corneille's appearance at Paris 
is doubtful. He seems to have entrusted his first play, M elite, 
to the actor and manager Mondory at Rouen in 1629 3 , and 
then to have come to Paris to the first night. Bouquet implies 4 
that Corneille remained at Rouen almost entirely for a consider- 
able period thereafter. He probably went from Rouen to Forges 
on the occasion of the visit of Louis XIII and Richelieu there in 

1633, attracted the notice of the Cardinal through his plays and 
"Excuse" and was grouped with the five authors at the end of 

1634. Magne tells us h Voiture first saw him at the Hotel de 
Rambouillet just after his triumph of the Cid (winter of 1636— '7). 
As Voiture had been a frequent visitor at the Hotel since his 
introduction by Chaudebonne in 1625, he would almost certainly 
have seen Corneille before that time, had the great author made 
more than two or three visits to this mansion, and, had this 
gathering spoken much of him, Voiture's curiosity would almost 
certainly have been aroused. We may consider, then, his 
presence in the polite society of Paris as hardly affecting the 
mise en scene and philosophy of his first six comedies ; for the date 
of the last {V Illusion Comique) apparently just precedes his first 
appearance at the Hotel de Rambouillet. There remains, how- 
ever, the society of Rouen, which outwardly differed little in 
kind from that of the fashionable center. Balzac says as much 

1 V. Lanson: Corneille, pp. 14-15. 

2 V. Bouquet: Points Obscurs, 186. 

3 Marty-Laveaux, I, 130 and Bouquet, op. cit., 67. 

ouquet, 68, and following pages on facts immediately following. 
6 Magne, II, 78. 



22 



in a letter to Corneille dated 1643. "How can one dispute in 
civility with you, who are at Rouen, when you are not at Paris, 
that is to say, who change one court for another court, and 
never depart from fashionable societ}^". 1 Preciosity, which 
Faguet 2 thinks came into existence about 1625, and into full 
being by 1630, flourished to a greater of less extent — finer or 
coarser — in the provinces, but especially at the North, and 
particularly at Rouen. 3 Parisian influence reached this city, 
as Strowski points out, through the near-by watering-place of 
Forges and the yearly presence of Mondory and the Marais 
actors with Parisian repertoire. BoiiqUet puts Corneille's social 
life at Rouen in the interim between his legal offices, — namely, 
from his reception at the bar in 1624 (not followed by law- 
practice), till he became "avocat du roi a la table de marbre du 
palais de Rouen" at the end of 1629. After this date his some- 
what arduous legal duties, together with his literary production, 
gave him little time for social pleasures, as he did not resign till 
1650. 4 But this four-year period of social pleasure was precisely 
the period of preparation antedating the production of the 
first six comedies, and of a necessity influencing the thought and 
attitude of the author. The society of Rouen at this time 
took great pleasure in masques and carnivals. We see in 
procession nymphs and satyrs and a whole phantasmagory such 
as was much esteemed by the Hotel de Rambouillet. We have 
a madrigal of Corneille 5 on the custom of carrying in this parade 
sweets for the fair maidens, also the Mascarade dcs Enjanis Gates 
for the group of Bankrupts in the Carnival. Music, boating on 
the Seine, collations, fireworks, added to the entertainment and 
gaiety of the Rouennaise society. That Corneille not only knew 
these particular amusements, but that he made use of some of 
them after he had ceased to take an active part, we shall have 
proof, — notably in the Menteur. 

So far we have seen that up to and including the period of 
production of his first group of comedies, our author had little 
to do with Parisian society, but, on the other hand, was very 

1 Balzac: Oeuvres, I, 692 (quoted by Strowski). 

2 Faguet: 17me. Siecle, pp. 140-141. 

3 V. Voyage de Chapelle et Bachaumont, Strowski : Pascal et son Temps, etc 

4 V. Bouquet, p. 28. 

5 Madrigal pour un masque donnant une boite de cerises confites a une 
demoiselle. 



23 



familiar with, and had only just ceased active participation in, 
the society of Rouen, which was almost precisely the same in 
form. 

The period of production of the Menteur and the Suite du 
Menteur marks a greater familiarity of the playwright with the 
social group of the Hotel de Rambouillet. In the middle of 1640 
he read his Polyeucte in his usual earnest, but not eloquent, 
manner to this gathering, — not, however, receiving unqualified 
approval. 1 According to Walckenaer, he read also his Rodogune 
and Theodore there at intervals of a year each, 2 but this statement 
has no further proof. Whether he wrote verses for Julie's 
Guirlande is also a matter of conjecture. 3 His direct personal 
connection with this society, then, can hardly be as great as is 
often stated, though Cousin, apparently on general supposition, 
contrasts him with Voiture, as if he were as much a part of this 
group as Mme. de Rambouillet's master of ceremonies. He 
says, "He (Voiture) is the sprightly side of the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet, as Corneille is its severe side". 4 Though not in close 
attendance on Parisian society, no writer as prominent at Paris 
as Corneille, and as openly anxious to please the public, could 
fail to receive a tincture of the prevailing mode, — in the end, of 
preciosite, — and we shall rightly expect to find this influence more 
marked in his last two comedies. 

1 V. Magne, II, 227. 

2 Walckenaer: Memoires . . . Mme. de Sevigny, I, 52-53. 

3 V. Lanson: Corneille, 14, and Magne II, 264, n. 

4 Cousin: La Jeunesse de la Duchesse de Longueville, p. 137. 



IV. TIMELY ALLUSIONS AND LOCAL COLOR. 

Before considering the comparative theories and modes of 
expression of the characters of the comedies, and those of con- 
temporary polite society, it will be interesting to see how much 
of more or less direct allusions to contemporary persons, customs, 
and things, — how much local color there is in these comedies. 

As we see from his various notices and "examens", Corneiile 
was extremely anxious to please his public. So, naturally, he put 
into his comedies as much reference to everyday life as possible, 
and this is in harmony with the nearness of comedy to actual life. 
Many allusions to contemporary things are direct, while others 
are still obscure and open to discussion. One point which has 
given occasion to a great deal of argument is Corneille's personal 
love as the foundation of his first comedy, and the true original 
of Melite. Corneille's Excuse a Ariste (1637) — often quoted 1 — 
seems to show his personal love was the foundation of the Melite. 

J'ai brule longtemps d'une amour assez grande, 

Et que jusqu'au tombeau je dois bien estimer, 

Puisque ce jut par Id que j'appris a rimer. 

Mon bonheur commenga quand mon dme fut prise: 

Je gagnai de la gloire en perdant ma franchise. 

Charme de deux beaux yeux, mon vers charma la cour, 

Et ce que j'ai de nom je le dois a Tamour. 

Also in the Nouvelles de la republique des lettres of Jan., 1685, 
we find these words in support of this theory, "He (Corneiile) 
thought of anything but poetry, and did not know himself the 
unusual talent he possessed, when there came to him a little love 
affair of which he thought to make a play by adding something to 
the truth". 2 

In 1708 his brother Thomas in the Dictionnaire universe},, 
geographique et historique . . ., under the heading Rouen 
wrote: "A love affair caused him to form the plan of making a 
comedy in order to use in it a sonnet which he had made for a 
girl with whom he was in love", — seeming to refer to the sonnet 
of the Melite. This corroborative evidence, with some of less 
importance, and no direct proof to the contrary, make it fairly 

1 Marty-Laveaux, I, 125; Lanson: Corneiile, 8; Bouquet: op. cit. 64, etc. 

2 For this and summaries of other documentary evidence, v. Marty-Laveaux, 
I, 125 ff ., and Bouquet's complete exposition in Ch. V of Pt. I. 



25 



certain that the M elite had as an immediate cause a love affair of 
the young author. 

Fontenelle in 1742, as is well known, had these words in his 
Histoire du Theatre frangais: "A young man takes one of his 
friends to the home of a young girl with whom he is in love; 
the newcomer establishes himself in the young lady's heart on 
the ruined love of his introducer; the pleasure that this adven- 
ture gives him makes him a poet; he made a comedy out of it 
and there you have the great Corneille ". In spite of the theoriz- 
ing of M. Gosselin, 1 there seems to be no good reason to believe 
Corneille did not supplant a friend who introduced him to his 
sweetheart with the disastrous results shown in the play. Cor- 
neille himself, then, is Tircis and his friend is firaste, who was 
considerably richer (if we may take the implications of the M elite 
literally). Perhaps also Marie Corneille fills the character of 
Cloris. This is as far as supposition can go with a fair degree of 
certainty, though Bouquet reiterates 2 the declaration that all the 
Rouennaise of the time knew the characters of the comedy in 
actual life. Melite herself was doubtless the Mme. du Pont of 
the Abbe Granet, 3 and her maiden name was Catherine Hue, born 
1611. So much we may accept as very probable. Further than 
this we hold after Lanson, 4 it would not be profitable nor advisable 
to consider exact and concrete correspondence between the 
Melite and the words and emotions of persons in the real environ- 
ment of Rouen. It is clear, then, we have in the Melite one at 
least of the principal members of Rouennaise society in the 
person of our author, "le parfait representant de cette epoque", 
and hence have an unusual instance of the closest kind of cor- 
respondence between contemporary society and dramatic produc- 
tion. 

After the Melite, the most extensive reproduction of known 
events, though not so directly personal, seems to exist in the Men- 
teur, which is, as we know, in the main a fairly close French adap- 
tation "en partie traduite — en partie imitee de l'espagne, " 5 of 
La Verdad Sospechosa of Alarcon. 6 One marked change in local 

1 Considered by Bouquet, pp. 57 ft. 

2 Bouquet, 47 and 59. 

3 Oeuvres Diverses de Pierre Corneille, 1738 — often cited. 

4 Lanson: Corneille, p. 9. 

5 M arty-La veaux, IV, 137, — Examen. 

6 Corneille thought at first it was by Lope de Vega, but later by chance dis- 
covered its real authorship. 



26 



color lies in the fact that Corneille substitutes Germany and its 
wars for the Spanish Peru, etc. 1 This is evidently influenced by 
the fact that the French soldiery were now fighting in Germany 
in the Thirty Years War, which France had entered by a declara- 
tion of war against Spain in 1635. In about a year (1643) the 
great Conde was to win the decisive battle of Rocroi. He it was, 
we remember, who shed tears at the presentation of Cinna in the 
second year preceding, and who seems to have been one of 
CorneiUVs chief advocates at the Hotel de Rambuillet. 2 There 
was, then, ample contemporary, patriotic and personal reason 
for placing the theater of the hero's imagined deeds of arms in 
Germany rather than in Peru. Bouquet also in his interesting 
chapter on Rouen et La Normandie Dans UOeuvre de Corneille* 
calls attention to the fact that there were many German prisoners 
at Rouen at this time, and one of the German generals mentioned 
in the Menteur 4 (Jean de Vert) we know was captured and 
brought in triumph to Paris. Two of those at Rouen were in 
the service of another also mentioned (Lamboy) ; so these names 
must have seemed very natural and familiar to a contemporary 
audience. 

Another indication of locality is given in the changes which 
occur in the adaptation of the famous Fete du Menteur. In the 
Spanish play, the festival is held under six leafy bowers formed 
from the branches of an elm-grove along the Manzanares. 5 In 
the Menteur we have a similar festival, but in boats apparently 
on the Seine at Paris (as the scene of the play is at Paris) . This 
is the opinion of M. Viguier in his careful comparison of the 
two plays, 6 but Bouquet ingeniously points out that the festival 
is rather on the Seine at Rouen, because the cliffs mentioned in 

1 V. M-L., IV, 132, Corneille's indication. 

2 Colombej r : Salons, Ruelles et Cabarets, p. 48, and Cousin: La Jeunesse 
de la Duchesse de Longueville, p. 146, etc. 

3 V. Bouquet: op. ell., Pt. I, Ch. XIII. 

4 M-L., IV, 159, 1. 336. He was so well known that the peasant women of 
Picardy frightened ill-behaved children with the ditty beginning 

Petits enfants, qui pleurera? 

Voila Jean de Werth qui s'avance! 

Aucun marmot ne bougera 

Ou Jean de Werth le mangera. — 

V. Lorin: Une Soiree au Chateau de Rambouillet, p. 85. 

5 V. Comedias . . . de Alarc6n (Hartzenbusch), p. 325. 

6 V. M-L, IV, 241 ff., esp. pp. 248-249. 



27 



the description do not exist at Paris, but do near Rouen. He 
quotes a contemporary account in Latin verse by Hercule Grisel 
of water festivals at Rouen, and also the interesting fact that 
until about the middle of the last century at any rate, boats 
called "gondoles" were used for picnic purposes near Rouen. 1 
The same author seems, however, in his zeal for Rouen — perhaps 
forgetting the Spanish original — to make an unwarrantable 
assertion of Rouennaise local color when he says, "Corneille owes 
to the customs of the Rouennais, his contemporaries, the first 
idea of his collation, of his concert, and even of the pyrotechnic 
display, so complacently invented and described by Dorante". 
He forgets entirely the "miisica y cena" of the Spanish, as well 
as the "cohetes, bombas y ruedas" "en copia disparadas". 2 We 
can readily agree that such festivals accompanied by fireworks 
and vocal and instrumental music were usual both at Rouen 
and at Paris. We have plenty of mention of "collations" and 
music therewith all through this period, even to the Precieuses 
Ridicules of Moliere. 3 An account of an entertainment made 
to the "petites maitresses" of the Hotel de Rambouillet by 
Mme. de Liancourt just in this period forms an extremely interest- 
ing parallel. 4 Boats, "collations", music, arbors, even "jasmins 
et orangers", 5 are there, and were it not for the stubborn Spanish 
original, this might be a very probable source for Dorante's 
fanciful description. Another highly interesting portrayal of 
similar entertainment is to be found in a letter of Voiture to the 
Cardinal de la Valette at the end of 1630. 6 It is very curious to 
note the correspondence in description of fireworks between this 
letter and both the French and the Spanish play. The French 
letter, as also the French play, refers to dancing as an important 
part of the entertainment, and we know that dancing was very 
much in favor at court in these years. Mile, de Montpensier 
tells us "there were never so many balls as that year [1630] ". 7 
It is not at all impossible that Corneille knew of the entertain- 
ment mentioned at the time it occurred, as he was visiting Paris 

1 V. Bouquet: op. cit., p. 177. 

2 V. Comedias ante cit., pp. 324-325. 

3 V. Mile, de Montpensier: Memoires, I, 43, 94 and passim; Magne, II, 
91, and I, 79 (diff. kinds of instruments). 

* V. Magne, II, 232 ff., and references in n. 1, p. 234. 

* V. M-L, IV, 155, 1. 274. 

6 Lettre X of Voiture in ed. Uzanne, I. 

7 Mile., de Montpensier: Memoires, I, 63; for 1641 v. Magne, II, 255-266. 



28 



in connection with the Melite. Other changes such as the 
substitution of Paris for Madrid, and of Poitiers for Salamanca 
in this play, and Lyons for Toledo in the Suite du Menteur, are 
entirely natural and prescribed for one who was making these 
plays French. It is interesting to note in connection with 
Dorante's law-study at Poitiers, that the famous Descartes took 
his degree in law there in 1616, and seems at that period of his 
life to have been of the same carefree temperament as Dorante 
and at Poitiers to have "vecu comme vit la jeunesse". 

In his very imitating of Spanish plays, once more, Corneille 
was merely following the lead of contemporary society. Spanish 
preoccupation entered France with Anne of Austria and moved 
along " divers channels. Costume possibly felt the influence 
first. Hats and collars and cut of beard of the "galant homme" 
had to be Spanish. The ladies knelt on "carreaux a la mode 
d'Espagne". 1 They wore a velvet mask or lowered their 
headdresses when they went out on foot. 2 The guitar be- 
came more or less a French instrument. 3 Spanish games of 
cards and Spanish dances were popular. The alcoves where 
the Precieuses gathered intimately were a Spanish innova- 
tion. Spanish was, of course, a recognized conversational lan- 
guage. Spanish literature had long influenced that of France, 
and we know that D'Urfee in writing the Astree benefited 
by the work of a Spanish author (Georges de Montemayor). 
Voiture, one of the ornaments of the Hotel de Rambouil- 
let, sojourned in Spain, and to Mile. Paulet described that 
country as the source of gallantry and the place whence it is 
spread through the world. 4 He was nicknamed El Rey Chiquito 
by the Hotel de Rambouillet. Mme. de Sabl£, also one of 
the important frequenters, held Spanish gallantry in high 
esteem. 5 Spain furnished much of the affectation and stilted 
language for the society of the second quarter of the century 
and its influence continued long after. Martinenche tells us 
that "Retz et Conde, Madame de Rambouillet et la Marquise de 
Montausier, le Cardinal de la Valette, et le Pere Bouhors, Mme. 
de Sevigne et Mme. de Lafayette n'auraient trouve personne dans 

1 V. Mme. de Motteville: Memoires, I, 8. 

2 V. Voltaire's note in M-L, IV, 345, n. 3. 

8 V. Cousin: Madame de Hautefort, p. 58, n. 

* V. Lettres (Uzanne), I, 120. 

5 V. Cousin: Mme. de Sabl6, p. 20, and Mme. de Motteville: Memoires, p. 15 



29 



ieur monde qui ne put les aborder par un 'Criado de vuestra 
merced' ". So Spanish influence becomes very marked after 
1630 and gains as the century draws on. 1 In connection with our 
author Bouquet shows the commercial relation of Rouen with 
Spain, the consequent necessity for studying the Spanish lan- 
guage, and indicates the existence of a Spanish colony, together 
with a Eue d'Espagne and a Rue des Espagnols. 2 According 
to the well-known report of Father Tourmine, Principal of the 
Jesuit school at Rouen which Cornei'ile attended, a certain 
M. de Chalons then of that city directed his attention to Spanish 
studies. All these facts are interesting as showing what incitants 
Corneille had in contemporary circumstances toward his study 
and imitation of Spanish literature, but we will do well to bear 
in mind that he long mistook the authorship of the Spanish 
original of the Menteur, that he only discovered the truth by 
chance, that he took both his Menteur and the Suite from 
Spanish plays in the same volume, which wrongly attributed the 
Verdad Sospechosa to Lope de Vega. This would not seem to 
indicate a wide or deep acquaintance with the literature of Spain. 
Having now considered the more extensive and moot problems 
of contemporary setting, we may turn to the briefer timely 
allusions. In the first place some of the titles of the Comedies 
serve to arrest the attention on scenes familiar to contemporary 
audiences, such as the Galerie du Palais with its shops, 3 and the 
Place Roy ale, the most aristocratic residential location, only 
completed in 161 2. 4 That Corneille was not oblivious to the 
effect of such well-known scenes is apparent from this remark 
in the Examen of the Galerie du Palais: "J'ai done pris ce titre 
de la Galerie du Palais, parce que la promesse de ce spectacle 
extraordinaire, et agreable pour sa naivete, devoit exciter vrai- 
semblablement la curiosite des auditeurs: et c'a ete pour leur 
plaire plus d'une fois, que j'ai fait paroitre ce raeme spectacle a 
la fin du quatrieme acte, ou il est entierement inutile . . . " 5 

1 For a bare statement of French adapters and imitators of Lope de Vega's 
plays alone, see J. Fitzmaurice — Kelly's Hist, de la Litt. Espagnole (Fr. ed.), 
pp. 270-271. This gives an indication of Spain's enormous literary influence 
on France just at this time. 

2 Bouquet: op. cit., p. 165. 

3 Mentioned in Tallemant, VIII, 49. V. description, Hanotaux: op. cit., 
70 ff. 

4 V. Cousin: La Jeunesse de la Duchesse de Longueville, 247, n. 2. 
6 M-L, II, 12. 



30 



The spectator of the time would have immediately brought to 
mind the latest fashions in "nouveautes" as we can see from the 
engraving by Abraham Bosse shown in the Album of the Marty- 
Laveaux edition, which might well have served as an illustration 
to this play, and have shown us Dorimant, Hippolyte and their 
faithful attendants, did we not know it could not be earlier than 
1637. After this play of Corneille the Galerie appears in many 
literary compositions. 1 La Place Royale also at this time was 
"the fashionable promenade, the rendez-vous of the most 
brilliant society and the center of lovers' trysts and intrigues". 2 
The Suivante must also be mentioned as a timely title, for 
Corneille was the first to introduce this character into general use 
in French comedy — in place of the lower corresponding type 
of nurse which had been played by a man with a mask. This 
introduction of the Suivante occurred in the Galerie du Palais and 
indicated that a considerable step had been taken toward the 
refining of comedy. 3 

Often within the plays we have touches of local color — more 
or less fleeting reference to well-known places, for example. All 
the Comedies except the Illusion Comique and the Suite du 
Menteur have their setting in Paris. The former is in the district 
about Tours, and the latter in Lyons, where we find the Place 
Bellecour twice mentioned. 4 

Naturally most of the local names belong to the city and 
environs of Paris — the Marais Theater, where Corneille takes 
pains to tell us the Menteur was played; 5 the Palais. 6 (de Justice or 
de la Cite), rebuilt after a fire of 1622; the H6tel.de Bourgogne, 7 
the fashionable St-Germain 8 with its Pre-aux-Clercs, 9 which was 
fast becoming lined with handsome residences, as Corneille has 
Dorante tell us. It had formerly been a vast vacant space 
occupying the centre of the Faubourg St-Germain and extending 
toward the Seine, a favorite duelling ground in the morning, and 
a promenade in the afternoon. It had begun to be built on in 

1 For quotations and description of some of these, v. M-L, II, 5 ff. 

2 M-L, II, 217. 

3 V. Corneille's remark, M-L, II, 14. 

4 M-L, IV, 345, 1. 1087 and 361, 1. 1387. 

5 M-L, IV, 388 (var.). 

6 M-L, II, 444, 1. 184. 

7 M-L, II, 32, 1. 250. 

8 II, 443, 1. 176 and II, 57, 1. 736. 
» IV, 171, 1. 560. 



31 



the reign of Henry II, though there were few edifices there in 1614, 
and was now being filled in with buildings. It is commemorated 
at present by the Rue du Pre-aux-Clercs. The aristocratic 
Marais quarter is also mentioned. 1 

From central sites of the city such as the Croix-du-Tiroir, 2 
the Tuileries, 3 twice mentioned as a meeting place for lovers, 
the fountain of La Samaritaine 4 on the Pont-Neuf, we go to 
Saint-Innocent 5 and Bissetre (Bicetre). 6 Reference is made in 
the Suite du Menteur to the well-known fact that Paris was not a 
safe place for the unattended person of either sex. Another 
reference of similar sort in La Galerie du Palais would seem to 
indicate that the "Trois filous rencontres vers le milieu du pont" 
were plying their nefarious tricks on the Pont-Neuf. This bridge, 
to be sure, is not specifically mentioned, but it was centrally 
located and perhaps the best known of seventeenth-century 
Paris. It was new also, having been built in the reign of 
Henry IV, though not complete for some years after. Magne 
tells of the stealing of cloaks there by Gaston d'Orleans, 7 and 
the presence of comic actors there in such condition of society 
would tend to gather villains of lower estate. It is referred to 
thus near the middle of the century as a 

Rendez-vous de charlatans, 

De filous, de passe-volants, 

Pont-Neuf, ordinaire theatre 

De vendeurs d'onguent et d'emplatre, 

S6jour des arracheurs de dents, 

Des fripiers, libraires, pedants, 

Des chanteurs de chansons nouvelles, . . . 

De coupe-bourses, d'argotiers, . . . 

There are also other descriptions which go to show the mixed and 
unsavory reputation of this bridge. 8 

i II, 57, 1. 738. 

2 M-L, II, 76, 1. 1084. 

3 IV, 212, 1. 1333, and 237, 1. 1765. 

4 II, 443, 1. 178. This was really an elaborate hydraulic pump which 
derived its name from the fact that the principal decoration of its facade 
" representait Jesus en conversation avec la Samaritaine aupres du puits de 
Jacob." 

5 M-L, II, 442, 1. 173. 

6 M-L, II, 189, 1. 1205. 7 Magne, I, 159. 

8 V. Hanotaux: op. cit., p. 68; also pp. 84-85 of Smith's ed. of Boileau: 
Art Poetique, and Chant III, 11. 426-428 of this poem. 



32 



Finally we go in allusion from Paris to Normandy, which is 
the line naturally taken in tracing problems concerning Corneille. 
In the Galerie du Palais 1 Dorimant is led by Lysandre's luke- 
warmness to the books displayed in the Galerie to think he 
prefers Normandy writers, especially authors of comedy. Marty- 
Laveaux quotes from the Au Lecteur of the Hippolyte by le sieur 
de la Pineliere (1635) to the effect that "maintenant, pour se 
faire croire excellent poete, il faut etre ne* dans la Normandie", 2 
but thinks Corneille's kindness to the Angevin poet may have 
somewhat influenced the latter's judgment. Strowski, however, 
mentions such contemporary Norman authors as Malherbe, 
Boisrobert, Rotrou, Brebeuf — not an insignificant group — and 
we must not forget the greatest of them all — Corneille, who 
may not in this case have been averse to a little personal publicity, 
as comedy seems to be especially in question. He often 
mentions one of his plays in another, as for instance in La Veuve, 
when he names the Melite and the characters Cloris and Philan- 
dre, 3 or refers to Th£ante of the Suivante in line 702 of the Place 
Royale. The Suite du Menteur is crowded with allusions 4 to 
the more happy and popular Menteur, doubtless with the intent 
of drawing the same favor from the public. This hope was not 
fulfilled and Corneille dropped one of the specific allusions to 
the Menteur after the first edition 5 ' 6 . 

Contemporaries, too, we find mentioned by name. Not to halt 
at the German officers already mentioned, in the Illusion Comique 
the actor Gautier (Hugues Gueru) who had died two years 
before is referred to as employing songs, and in the same line 7 
another actor Guillaume as an utterer of "pointes". This actor 
had died in the same year. But most important is the famous 
comic actor Jodelet, whom we find twice referred to in the Suite. 8 

i M-L, II, 26, 1. 146. 

2 V. M-L, II, 4. 

s M-L, I, 446, 1. 931-932. 

4 More or less boastful at times, as when Cliton calls it so true to nature 
as to seem like magic. V. IV, 304, 1. 273 ff.;i>. IV, 293, 1. 104; 294, 11. 134 ff.; 
304, 11. 269 ff.; 320, 321, 322. Act II, Sc. IV: 371, 11. 1553 ff.; 388 (var.). 

s M-L, IV, 388 (var.). 

6 V. also passing mention of Bordeaux, II, 444, 1. 192; Bretagne, II, 438, 
1. 69; Rennes, II, 439, 1. 97, etc. 

7 V. M-L, II, 443, 1. 181 and n.'s 5 and 6. On Gautier v. E. Magne : Gaultier- 
Gargouille, comedien a l'Hotel de Bourgogne. 

s M-L, IV, 304, 1. 281, and 333, 1. 826. 



33 

According to Cliton there are few such actors, and certainly in 
France "il n'est point que Jodelet l et moi", which taking into 
consideration the time and the popularity of this actor and of the 
Menteur, may not be an exaggeration as regards comedy. Cor- 
neille refers several times to the popularity of comedy and of the 
theater in general. In the Galerie du Palais he tells us that 
comedy is quick to lay hold on all absurdities and to turn them 
to its profit. 2 Also "La mode est a present des pieces de 
theatre", 3 and 

A present le theatre 
Est en un point si haut que chacun l'idolatre, 
Et ce que votre temps voyoit avec mepris 
Est aujourd'hui l'amour de tous les bons esprits, 
L'entretien de Paris, le souhait des provinces, 
Le divertissement le plus doux de nos princes, 
Les delices du peuple, et le plaisir des grands: 
II tient le premier rang parmi leurs passe-temps : 
Et ceux dont nous voyons la sagesse profonde 
Par ses illustres soins conserver tout le monde, 
Trouvent dans les douceurs d'un spectacle si beau 
De quoi se delasser d'un si pesant fardeau. 
The king views it kindly and the most talented poets and men of 
letters contribute to it. 4 This has other foundation than mere 
desire for publicity and poetic fancy. There is constant reference 
to the taste for the theater, and especially for comedy in the 
accounts of the time. The members of the Hotel de Rambouillet 
attended the theater often and gave representations among them- 
selves. 5 At least two other private gatherings presented comedies. 
Mademoiselle tells us that at the Hotel de Brissac the "diver- 
tissements ordinaires etaient les comedies", and mentions that at 
the Hotel de Ventadour Madame la Princesse gave some in 
imitation. 6 It is curious to note that in 1647 the Sorbonne 
being appealed to by Anne of Austria, who was very fond of 

1 He "n'avait qu'a se montrer pour provoquer le rire". He excelled in 
parts created especially for him by Scarron, — most of all, perhaps, in Jodelet 
ou le maitre valet (1645). 

2 M-L, II, 92, 1. 1398 and line preceding. 

3 II, 26, 1. 138. 4 V. II, 521, 11. 1645 ff. 

5 V. Magne, I, 146 f 190, 209; II, 174, 257, 268; Cousin: Soc, I, 324, n. 

6 Mile, de Montpensier: Memoires, I, 36, 37, 44; v. decree of Louis XIII, 
1641, recognizing the profession of comedian as honorable, P. de Julleville. 
Theatre Francais, 139 and note. 



34 



comedy, " II f ut prouve par dix ou douze autres docteurs (Seven 
had signed a note of disapproval) que, presuppose que dans la 
comedie il ne se dise rien qui put apporter scandale, ni qui fut 
contraire aux honnetes moeurs, qu'elle etait de soi indifferente, et 
qu'on pouvoit Tentendre sans scrupule: et cela fonde sur ce que 
l'usage de TEglise avoit beaucoup diminue de cette severite 
apostolique que les premiers Chretiens avoient observee dans les 
premiers siecles". 1 This goes to show the universal favor in 
which comedy was held at this time. We should not overlook, 
either, the popularity of Corneille's own masterpieces in this 
genre. Many of the lines of the Menteur passed into proverbs, 
and allusions to it were long made and understood. 2 A gallant 
poem of 1642 shows also that at Paris "les Tircis assemblez et les 
belies Cloris" kept the memory of the Melite alive. 3 The 
Illusion Comique informs us also that the theater is as profitable 
as it is popular — "Le theatre est un fief dont les rentes sont 
bonnes", 4 the actors lead a comfortable life and "Le gain leur en 
demeure", 5 and we have the realistic sharing of the proceeds after 
the play is done. Marty-Laveaux quotes from Chapuzeau's 
"Le Theatre frangois" to show that this practice was common. 6 
Alcandre's statement that "Ainsi tous les acteurs d'une troupe 
comique, Leur poeme recite, partagent leur pratique", 7 also car- 
ries weight with it. 

The popularity of the novel is evidenced by allusions in the 
Comedies. A passage in the Galerie du Palais 8 would indicate, 
as the fact actually was, that the chief popularity of the theater 
followed that of the novel. The Astree began to appear in 
1607. 9 This was the first and one of the greatest early works to 
receive the title of novel in France. The theater received its 
greatest impulse, on the other hand, from the group of playwrights 
who began to produce in the years 1628-1630. The more famous 
of these latter were Rotrou, Scudery, Du Ryer, and Corneille. 
Mairet had been producing for some eight years, and many other 

1 Mme. de Motteville: Memoires, 3, 304. 

2 V. M-L, IV, 127-128: Voyage de Chapelle et Bachaumont, p. 47. 

3 Quoted by Magne, II, 245 ff. 
* M-L, II, 522, 1. 1666. 

5 II, 521, 1. 1637. 

5 II, 427. 

7 II, 520, 11. 1617-1618. 

8 M-L, II, 26, 11. 136-138. 

» V. Reure: D'Urfee, pp. 216-217. 



35 



strong writers joined the ranks in the next few years; so that 
in 1636 Corneille could describe the great popularity of comedy, 
and this popularity went on increasing till Moliere's master- 
pieces had appeared. The popularity of the Astree seems to 
have begun with its publication and to have grown rapidly. 
Bassompierre relates that in 1609 Henry IV, to while away the 
sleepless hours of the night and to forget his gout, had read to 
him u le livre d' Astree, qui pour lors estoit en vogue". 1 The 
enthusiasm reached its height only after the publication of the 
last part in ^628, and expressions of praise soon became ex- 
travagant. 2 Cjorneille's allusion then, to Celadon as a popular 
lover in the Veuve 3 is one to touch the popular fancy. It is 
quite possible that the name of the character Celidan of this play 
may be a reminiscence of the Astree. By 1644 in the Suite we 
have even the femme de chambre reading the Astree, 4 and giving 
as excuse the fanciful proof of her being from the same village 
as Astree and being related to both Astree and Celadon. Two 
other characters, Sylvandre and Semire, are also mentioned in 
the same connection. 5 This passage is sometimes referred to as 
proof that Corneille had read the Astree, but, as Marty-Laveaux 
points out, there was no village where Astree dwelt, — at least 
none is mentioned in the novel, where the district of Forez is 
described as the scene of the story. "Aupres de Tancienne ville 
de Lyon, du coste du soleil couchant, il y a un pays nomme 
Forests," as we find at the beginning of this pastoral narrative. 
Whether Corneille had read the Astree or not, he evidently realized 
its popularity and importance, as in the Suite he substitutes it 
for the Don Quijote in a scene between Melisse and Lyse corre- 
sponding to a similar one between Leonarda and lues in Lope 
de Vega's Amar Sin Saber a Quien. G It also appears from this 
scene that the confidante was thoroughly versed in ballads; so 
the Astree really serves a double purpose. As the most popular 
novel and the best of the time it corresponds in position to the 
Don Quijote in Spain. As founded on the influence of Spanish 
and Italian romances, it corresponds to the Romancer o. 

1 Quoted by Reure: op. cit., p. 206. 

2 V. Reure, 302 ff. 

3 M-L, I, 406, 11. 127-128. 
4 IV, 354, 11. 1238 ff. 

6 IV, 353, 1. 1235 and 354, 1. 1243. 

6 Lope de Vega Carpio: Comedias Escogidas, II, p. 444, Act. I, Sc. VI. 



30 



Heroes of various Spanish picaresque novels, Lazarillo de 
Tormes, Sayavedra and Guzman d'Alfarache, Buscon appear, — 
all of whom are heroes of merry and adventurous tales, transla- 
tions of which had been appearing in France since the preceding 
century and were now given a new interest by fresh translations 
and the Spanish preoccupation of fashionable society. The 
Italian influence preceded the Spanish, and naturally we find a 
reference to Marin in an earlier comedy. 1 Marin had consider- 
ably reinforced previous Italian influence in introducing concetti 
and other artificial forms into French literature, thereby pervert- 
ing good taste. His A done (1623), his most important work, 
appeared ten years before this play was presented and was 
apparently having its effect in furnishing a model for a mig- 
nardise" of expression. 2 

The Gazette gives an occasion for a quasi-literary allusion 
in the Menteur. 3 This is the Gazette de France, a news periodical 
founded in 1631, and duly reporting the valorous deeds of the 
Thirty Years War. 

The duel had caused so much discussion and legislation on 
account of the havoc it had wrought, that Corneille's ideas on it 
may give an added proof of the synchronism of the Comedies 
with the events and thoughts of society. The earliest mention of 
the duel occurs in the M elite,* and is especially interesting 
because it seems to give the main argument for and against the 
custom. Here curiously enough, Corneille's own ideas, as we 
know them from other sources, are put in the mouth of the 
cowardly Philandre. Tircis says "Quoi! tu crains le duel?" 
To which Philandre replies, 

Non: mais j'en crains la suite, 
Ou la mort du vaincu met le vainqueur en fuite, 
Et du plus beau succes le dangereux eclat 
Nous fait perdre Fobjet et le prix du combat. 

Tircis has already indicated that the purpose of a duel is to 
repair affronts. Philandre's speech, 5 however, certainly voices 

1 La Galerie du Palais; v. M-L, II, 22, 1. 100. 

2 V. loc. ait., 1. 105. 3 IV, 148, 1. 167. 

4 M-L, I, 194, 1. 853 ff. 

5 V. loc. cit., 11. 856 ff . and 859 ff . The most comic line of the first comedies 
is where Philandre pretends to be seeking to fight Tircis and his former sweet- 
heart, who is Tircis' sister, says of Tircis, "Pourvu qu'il y consente, il sera 
bien battu". M-L, I, 206, 1. 1062. 



37 

the sentiments of Corneille who is always on the side of common 
sense. He well expressed the fallacy of the duel when he said in 
reply to Scudery at the time of the Quarrel of the Cid, " There is no 
necessity for knowing how much more noble or valiant you may be 
than myself, in order to judge how far superior the 'Cid' is to 
the 'Amant Liberal'". 1 The duel did not solve the problem. 
This dialogue of the Melite is interesting, too, because it must 
have been written and presented while the most noteworthy 
penalty for duelling was paid in the death of the Count of 
Bouteville. Duelling had been causing the death of literally 
multitudes of the best men of France. It has been asserted that 
in the years 1598-1608 some 8,000 men were killed in this way. 2 
Ordinances were promulgated against the custom, and Richelieu 
realized that they must be enforced or the king's authority would 
be nullified. So he finally made an example of the Count of 
Bouteville (1627). The other participant had fled beyond reach. 
Theante in the Suivante still seems to present the common- 
sense views of Corneille. The disadvantage of the winner's losing 
the prize and having to flee as expounded in the Melite, is here 
added to by the statement that valor often yields to trickery, 
which goes beyond Corneille's own words in reply to Scudery: 

Le duel est faeheux, et quoi qu'il en arrive, 
De sa possession l'un et l'autre il nous prive, 
Puisque de deux rivaux, l'un mort, l'autre s'enfuit, 
Tandis que de sa peine un troisieme a le fruit. 
A croire son courage, en amour on s'abuse: 
La valeur d'ordinaire y sert moins que la ruse. 3 

Theante repeats the idea of the chance-element in duelling later in 
the play, 4 and his words are referred to also in the Place Royale, 5 
which beside showing us once more Corneille's thought that "La 
suite des duels ne fut jamais plaisante", serves to prove that the 
composition of the Suivante must have preceded that of the Place 
Royale, though in presentation the order was reversed. In the 
Suite we have described the imprisonment of the innocent third 

1 Quoted by Guizot: Life and Times of Corneille, p. 162. 

2 V. Art. Duel: Larousse: Dictionnaire Universel. We also find a more 
extreme remark in Lavisse: op. cit., VI, Pt. II, p. 10. 

3 M-L, II, 160, 1. 649 ff. 
4 II, 190, 1. 1226. 

5 II, 260, 11. 701-702. 



38 

party who came up as a duel was ending. This must have been at 
least a probable occurrence in France at this time, for Corneille 
does not hesitate to change the scene of imprisonment from 
Toledo to Lyons in adapting. Duelling, though fulminated 
against by royal edict, was by no means done away with. The 
combative tendencies of Cyrano de Bergerac and George de 
Scudery are familiar matters, and Tallemant relates various 
stories of men of valor with the sword, — of Neufgermain, for 
example, with his sword constantly by his side, 1 and more 
remarkably of the puny Voiture who fought four duels "de jour 
et de nuit, au soleil, a la lune et aux flambeaux". 2 At the end 
of 1643 took place the much-famed duel of the Due de Guise 
and Maurice de Coligny, which Mile, considered the most 
remarkable event of the winter. 3 It is curious to note Coligny's 
delicate sense of honor which engaged him to keep on after the 
Duchesse de Longueville, for whom he took up arms, was satis- 
fied, 4 and that the duel (with seconds) took place at this advanced 
date in so frequented a place as the Place Royale. 

We find evidence of contemporary superstitious belief in two 
of the later comedies. Superstition belongs to all ages, but 
each period has its own kind or degree. The ancient, crude, 
and openly marvelous form would not do for the seventeenth 
century, as Dorante implies in his speech to Pridamant in the 
first scene of the Illusion Comique. Speaking of the Magician 
Alcandre, he remarks : 

Je ne vous dirai point qu'il commande au tonnerre, 
Qu'il fait enfler les mers, qu'il fait trembler la terre : 
Que de l'air, qu'il mutine en mille tourbillons, 
Contre ses ennemis il fait des bataillons: 
Que de ses mots savants les forces inconnues 
Transportent les rochers, font descendre les nues, 
Et briller dans la nuit 1'eclat de deux soleils: 
Vous n'avez pas besoin de miracles pareils : . . . 5 

This is the apparatus of novices, and Corneille possibly gently 

1 Tallemant: Historiettes, IV, 113. 

2 Tallemant, IV, 42. 

3 Mile, de Montpensier: Memoires, I, 90, and Mme. de Motteville: Memoires, 
I, 158. 

4 Mile, de Montpensier: Memoires, I, app., p. 390. 
6 M-L, II, 437, 1. 49-56. 



39 



ridicules the popular seers of this period with "tous leurs encens. 
Et leurs mots incormus, qu'ils feignent tout-puissants, Leurs 
herbes, leurs parfums et leurs ceremonies", indicating that 
they pretend only "un mystere pipeur Pour se faire valoir et 
pour vous faire peur". 1 That there were people of this sort 
earlier and later in the century we can take Tallemant's word. 
In his Historiette of Falgueras 2 he recounts the peculiar circum- 
stances of that gentleman's coming to Paris. The persons to 
whom he had a letter of introduction looked on him as a sorcerer 
because he asked for salt. "Cela venait de ce que leur ainee 
avait un mal de langueur depuis quatre mois : et comme le peuple 
croit toujours qu'il y a quelque sort aux maux qu'il ne connait 
point, ils avaient ete a je ne sais quelle devineresse qui avec le 
grimoire, leur avait mit dans la tete qu'elle ferait venir le sorcier 
du bout du monde s'il y etait et que, pour marque il demanderait 
du sel ". This case in 1655 luckily did not end in the death of the 
accused, but in 1611 Louis Gaufridi had been burned alive at Aix 
as a sorcerer/ 3 and Leonore Dori, Marechale d'Ancre, who 
"imagina etre ensorcelee, et, de peur des fascinations, elle allait 
toujours voilee", was burned to death for sorcery in Paris July 8, 
1617. for political reasons apparently, by the parlement "qui ne 
croit point aux sorciers". 4 To the same source we owe informa- 
tion about Mine, de Vervins, who had "des faiblesses de son pays 
(Lorraine) ou Ton croit fort aux sorciers". " Elle se vante d" avoir 
rendu paralytique la main de Mme. de floret ... en lui 
donnant sa malediction". 5 It appears from the foregoing that, 
although the people of the provinces believed in witchcraft, as 
did the common people of Paris, men of intelligence like the 
judges did not even as early as 1617. It is also noteworthy that 
Tallemant writing in Paris reports these tales of witchcraft with 
no indication of faith in magic on his part. 6 

In the third scene of Act I of the Illusion Comique (M-L, II, 
442, 11. 169 ff.), we are told Clindor "vendit par la plaine Des 
brevets a chasser la fievre et la migraine, Dit la bonne aventure", 
and thereby gained enough money to reach Paris. In the 

1 Loc. cit., 11. 127 ff., p. 440. 

2 Tallemant : Historiettes, IX, 173 ff . 

3 V. Tallemant: op. cit., VIII, 27 and n. 2. 
4 1, 193-194. 

5 VIII, 82. 

6 It is interesting to see that about 1661 Mme. de Sevigne believed in astrol- 
ogy, while the Intendant Fouquet did not. V. Walckenaer: op. cit., II, 273. 



40 

Menteur l there is mention of a remarkable poudre de sympathie 
which Cliton is inclined to ridicule. Of course there have been 
quacks in all times, but this mention is important as dating in a 
manner this comedy. 2 In regard to the whole matter of quack 
nostrums, Boissier shows from Mme. de Sevigne's letters that she 
had some faith in various peculiar remedies, — powdered crab's 
eyes, for instance. 3 

While we are considering the extraordinary, contained mostly 
in the Illusion Comique, we will glance at the unusual character 
of the Captain Matamore, who, Corneille says, "n'a d'etre que 
dans l'imagination, invente expres pour faire rire et dont il ne se 
trouve pas d'original parmi les hommes". 4 The boastful Gascon 
is a very fanciful creation, to be sure, but even he can be more 
or less paralleled in the real life of the time. Not to consider 
the fire-eater of Spanish literature, the French authors at this 
time were especially ridiculing the grave boastfulness of the 
Spaniards. 5 Though not so extravagant in boasts of brave 
deeds, there is at once apparent a comparison between Matamore 
and two characters described to us by Tallemant, and who were 
before the public at just about this period. One was the President 
de Chevry, 6 who pursued a man at a great distance after having 
threatened him with a drubbing, and then inquired of his neighbor 
if she had not seen him punish the man. On another occasion 
when a man to whom he had proposed a duel asked him about 
it, he replied "cette humeur-la m'est passee". This phraseology 
might be compared to that of Matamore when he magnanimously 
spares Clindor. "ficoute: je suis bon, et ce serait dommage 
De priver l'univers d'un homme de courage". 7 Again, when 
Matamore has run away from the valets 8 he flees to the granary 
of Isabelle's house, and when Isabelle and Lyse see him again 
he is in a pitiable state, for because of his fear he has remained 
four days in the granary without proper food. Lyse accuses 
him of being much afraid, and he says he has made a swift steed 

1 M-L, IV, 203, 11. 1180 ff. 

2 V. M-L, IV, 204, n. 1. 

3 V. Boissier: Mme. de Sevigne, p. 126. 

4 V. M-L, II, 432. 

5 V. Scudery: Le Poltron — cited by Martinenche: op. cit., 307, n. 3; and also 
the rhodomontade of the "Cartel de Deffi", loc. cit. 

6 Tallemant: Historiettes, II, 59 ff., esp. 62-63. 

7 V. M-L, II, 483, 11. 945-946, and whole scene. 

8 V. M-L, II, 485, Sc. xi. 



41 



of fear. 1 The parallel is very close here with the story, of the 
young Bazaniere, 2 who had arms made and was so eager to go 
to war he was finally given an opportunity. He became so 
frightened before even sighting the enemy that he rode back 
through the whole army and "galoppa jusqu'a Amiens ou il 
s'en alloit cacher dans un granier au foin, et apres dit que son 
cheval l'avoit emporte". He was so ill from fright he had to be 
carried to Paris in a litter, and was much mocked for his poltroon- 
ery. Truth often is stranger than fiction, and Corneille would 
doubtless have been much surprised when creating such a fabric 
of fancy, to know that cowards as real and absurd, if not as 
comic, were at that very time ridiculed in Paris. Perhaps he 
had not the proper perspective to see that at just this point of 
French history " jamais le hero n'a frise de plus pres le 
matamore". 3 

1 M-L, II, 497, 1. 1162 and whole of Sc. IV. 

2 V. Tallemant: Historiettes, VI, 110 ff. 

3 Hanotaux: op. cit., p. 87. If it were not to go too far astray, many other 
contemporary comparisons could be made, as, for instance, between the 
character of Florame, as shown especially in Theante's speech at the beginning 
of the Suivante, and that of Voiture drawn especially from his letters. 



V. PRfiCIOSITfi IN LOVE, MARRIAGE AND 
LANGUAGE. 

Corneille, like the polite society of his time, and the Astree, 
which antedates and doubtless influences both, displays the 
belief that love, like proverbial marriages, is made in Heaven. 
We have seen the rules of love as laid down in the Astree, — 
these in turn drawn from the rules of the Courts of Love. The 
fact that the basic principle, the keystone of the philosophy of 
the Astree is love, probably accounts for its influence on the 
theater of Corneille and the Hotel de Rambouillet. 1 Now the 
idea of D'Urfee's novel as to the source of love is, that love is pre- 
destined. "Mais comment se fera la rencontre des ames faites 
pour s'aimer? Sylvandre l'explique par une sorte de predestina- 
tion. L'amour des nobles ames est ecrit dans le ciel: elles sont 
par un influx divin aimantees Tune vers l'autre: 'II advient qu'- 
aussi-tost que Tame est dans le corps et qu'elle rencontre celle 
qui a son aimant, il lui est impossible qu'elle ne Taime et d'ici 
procedent tous les effets d'amour' ". 2 This Heaven-decreed love 
is that invoked by Corneille in his comedies. Heaven itself 
chooses our partners as Philiste tells us in the Veuve} That the 
Astree is in all probability before Corneille 's mind here we can see 
from the reference to Celadon a few pages farther on, 4 while the 
awkward lover is reported by Doris as saying "Vous m'attirez 
a vous ainsi que fait Y aimant"? which, unless proof to the 
contrary appears, would seem to show this idea of Heavenly 
magnetism to be prevalent, as, from the context and circumstan- 
ces, this was apparently a stock phrase to express attractiveness. 
The aimant and the Astree again appear in the last comedy 
Corneille was to write. Lyse, in Act II of the Suite du Menteur, 
remarks in reply to Melisse's dissertation on this same theme 
of predestination, "Si, comme dit Sylvandre, une ame en se 
formant, Ou descendant du ciel, prend d'une autre Taimant, 6 
La sienne (Dorante's) a pris le vdtre, et vous a rencontree". 7 

1 V. Du Bled: Le Roman de L' Astree, p. 167 of Vol. II, Soc. Fr. 
2 Reure: D'Urfee, 244. 
8 M-L, I, 403, 11. 79 ff. 
4 hoc. cit. 405, 1. 127. 
5 1, 409, 1. 200. 

6 V. note on this passage in M-L; also compare passage quoted above from 
Reure, which seems to contain the same purport. 

7 M-L, IV, 353, 11. 1235 ff. 



43 



Whether Corneille knew of the Astree before he began to prepare 
the Veuve (produced 1632?) we cannot say, but it is significant 
that he keeps it in mind from now to the Suite. The first 
reference (to the model love of Celadon) would show, too, as 
we know from abundance of corroborative evidence, the fame 
the Astree had achieved shortly after the publication of its last 
part. In the Illusion, Adraste voices in almost Sylvandre's words 
the foreordination of love. 

1ST avoir que du mepris pour des flammes si saintes 
Dont j'ai recu du ciel les premieres atteintes! 
Oui, le ciel, au moment qu'il me fit respirer, 
Ne me donna du coeur que pour vous adorer. 
Mon ame vint au jour pleine de votre idee: 
Avant que de vous voir vous l'avez possedee: 
Et quand je me rendis a des regards si doux, 
Je ne vous donnai rien qui ne fut tout a vous, 
Rien que Fordre du ciel n'eut deja fait tout votre. 1 

This is undeniably the orthodox teaching of the Astree. We find 
also rebellion against this doctrine in the person of Alidor, the 
"villain" of the Place Roy ale. 

Comptes-tu mon esprit entre les ordinaires? 
Penses-tu qu'il s'arrete aux sentiments vulgaires? 
Les regies que je suis ont un air tout divers: 
Je veux la liberte dans le milieu des fers. 
II ne faut point servir d'objet qui nous possede: 
II ne faut point nourrir d'amour qui ne nous cede: 
Je le hais s'il me force: et quand j'aime je veux 
Que de ma volonte dependent tous mes voeux, 
Que mon feu m'obeisse au lieu de me contraindre, 
Que je puisse a mon gre l'enflammer et l'eteindre, 
Et toujours en etat de disposer de moi, 
Donner quand il me plait et retirer ma foi. 2 

A Cornelian Hylas is needed to contrast with, and complete, 
Celadon, the ideal of pure orthodoxy in lovemaking. A similar 
contrast in the feminine attitude is that between Angelique, who 
thinks to show affection for two lovers, is to be unfaithful to both, 
and Phylis, who loves "un chacun" and admits "tout le monde 

» M-L, II, 453, 11. 373 ff . 
2 M-L, II, 234, 11. 201 ff. 



M 



me plait". 1 In general, as even Alidor finds, it is to invite 
catastrophe to rebel against the inward mysterious call of 
Heavenly predestination: for 

II attache ici-bas avec des sympathies 

Les ames que son ordre a la-haut assorties: 

On n'en sauroit unir sans ses avis secrets: 

Et cette chaine manque ou manquent ses decrets. 

Aller contre les lois de cette providence, 

C'est le prendre a partie et blamer sa prudence, 

L'attaquer en rebelle, et s'exposer aux coups 

Des plus apres malheurs qui suivent son courroux. 2 

Whether Corneille in this idea of love as ordained in Heaven 
before the birth of the future lovers, who are after birth drawn 
to one another by an irresistible attraction (aimant), is influenced 
very directly by the Astree, as seems highly probable, or more 
indirectly by the philosophy of love of the polite society of the 
time, — in either case, he is mirroring the prevalent ideas on love 
held by contemporary society; for they had their origin in this 
famous novel of "honnete amitie". 

That lovers made for one another by the "ordres du ciel" 
can quickly come to an understanding and love "enun moment" 
assisted by all the aids of love, Melisse makes as convincing as 
possible to her confidante in the Suite. 3 That is, there is love at 
first sight, or an approach to it. This is more unusual, more 
divinely directed. There is, however, a slower and perhaps more 
human way. This is explained by Lysandre of the Galerie du 
Palais who mentions afterward that this is a method to be used 
against shy ladies who need to be won carefully and diplomatic- 
ally. If this were not so, he might seem unmindful of the divine 
origin of love as expressed in the comedy of the year before (the 
Veuve). We give at length this discourse to let appear the slow 
gradation. 

Ta curiosite deviendra bientot flamme : 

C'est par la que F amour se glisse dans une ame. 

A la premiere vue, un objet qui nous plait 

1 II, pp. 227-22S. 

2 II, 46S, 11. 645 ff. It should be borne in mind of course that the convic- 
tion expressed in these lines is doubtless made the firmer in resistence to 
parental authority. They are spoken by Isabelle. 

3 V. M-L, IV, p. 353, which is a good description of the beginnings of love. 



45 



N'inspire qu'un desir de savoir ce qu'il est: 

On en veut aussitot apprendre davantage, 

Voir si son entretien repond a son visage, 

Eprouver son esprit, connaitre son humeur: 

De la cet examen se tourne en complaisance: 

On cherche si souvent le bien de sa presence, 

Qu'on en fait habitude, et qu'au point d'en sortir 

Quelque regret commence a se f aire sentir : 

On revient tout reveur: et notre ame blessee, 

Sans prendre garde a rien, cajole sa pensee. 

Ay ant reve le jour, la nuit a tout propos 

On sent je ne sais quoi qui trouble le repos: 

Un sommeil inquiet, sur de confus images 

Eleve incessamment de flatteuses images, 

Et sur leur vain report fait naitre des souhaits 

Que le reveil admire et ne dedit jamais: 

Tout le coeur court en hate apres de si doux guides: 

Et le moindre larcin que font ses voeux timides 

Arrete le larron et le met dans les fers. 1 

This description of the subtle beginnings of love might well 
appear in the comedies of Marivaux, who represents the preciosite 
of the eighteenth century. So here we have corroborative 
evidence that contemporary society is the one great background 
and raison d'etre, as it were, of these comedies. Corneille inti- 
mates in the Melite that love in fashion is what is going to appear 
there, — at least Tircis says that the fashion compels him to 
"remplir de feux ma bouche" in the presence of the loved one. 

"Tous ces discours de livre alors sont de saison: 
II faut feindre des maux, demander guerison, 
Donner sur le phcbus, promettre des miracles, 
Jurer qu'on brisera toute sorte d'obstacles. . . . " 2 

The Nourrice in the same play shows the conduct of 3 r oung ladies 
under the same circumstances. Except in unusual cases 

. . . il lui faut complaire a tout le monde 
Faire qu'aux voeux de tous l'apparence reponde, 
Et sans embarasser son coeur de leurs amours, 

1 II, 30, 11. 209 ff . 

2 M-L, I, 146, 11. 63 ff., whole speech. 






46 

Leur faire bonne mine, et souffrir leurs discours. 
Qu'a part ils pensent tous d'avoir la preference, 
Et paraissent ensemble entrer en concurrence: 
Que tout l'exterieur de son visage egal 
Ne rende aucun jaloux du bonheur d'un rival, 
Que ses yeux partages leur donnent de quoi craindre, 
Sans donner a pas un aucun lieu de se plaindre : 
Qu'ils vivent tous d'espoir jusqu'au choix d'un mari, 
Mais qu'aucun cependant ne soit le plus cheri. 

— all of which, she implies, will require "beaucoup d'adresse". 1 
This method given in this play before 1630 might well be the 
textual report of advice given, for example, by Mme. de Ram- 
bouillet to her daughter Julie, to the future Mme. de Sable, or 
to any of the more illustrious younger set of the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet. Mme. de Sevigne will later profit by demeanor modeled 
on these very principles. 

As we go on through the comedies and the years advance, 
the idea of service, drawn from the Astree and the other pastoral 
novels then appearing in France, — not to mention those of Italy 
and Spain, — and further back from the idea of courtly love 
advanced by the troubadours, becomes prominent and tends to 
attenuate into an intellectual and delicate courtship. Love be- 
comes, in short, more and more precieux. As early as the Veuve, 
Philiste sounds the keynote of service and of submission before 
the loved one. Let us not offer our service (openly pay court) 
at first, he says, lest 

Notre submission a l'orgueil la prepare. 

Usons pour etre aimes, d'un meilleur artifice 
Et sans lui rien ofTrir, rendons-lui du service: 
Regions sur son humeur toutes nos actions, 
Regions tous nos desseins sur ses intentions. . . ." 2 

How real this service was can be seen from Lysandre's sending 
his servant Aronte in the Galerie du Palais 

" Voir ce que sa maitresse a resolu de lui, 
Et comment vous (Celidee) voulez qu'il passe la journ6e ". 3 

1 V. speech of la Nourrice, M-L, I, 208, 11. 1083 ff. 

2 M-L, I, p. 400, Philiste's speech. 
2 M-L, II, 20, 11. 56-57. 



47 



This idea is combated by Alcidon-Hylas, but Philiste, as the 
principal and more noble character, should naturally voice the 
more refined and typical manner. It is also significant that 
Alcidon calls this a "procede nouveau", while Philiste refers to 
Alcidon's more hasty and direct method of attack as being "la 
commune adresse". It had been more common before to make 
love by force, as it were, by abduction frequently, 1 but now more 
refined methods, — precieux, if you will — were coming into 
prominence. "Mille petits devoirs", the "secret language" of 
"soupirs", "Des coups d'oeil languissants, des souris ajustes, 
Des penchements de tete a demi concertes, Et mille autres 
douceurs" — at once remind us of the Carte de Tendre, and the 
idea of Precieux love given us by Somaize. Dorimant in the 
Galerie 2 expresses great faith in the value of "services" to bring 
about the marriage-day, and Lysandre pathetically unfolds his 
submission to Clarice in the same play. 3 The Carte de Tendre 
is again brought to mind by Amarante's remark to Florame in 
the Suivante that, in her eyes, " Le merite y fait tout " 4 (in matters 
of love). This is none other than the concept symbolized by 
the city of Tendre-sur-Estime, which is one of the great terminals 
of lovers' journeys. 5 In the Place Royale, too, we are reminded 
that love has many paths, 6 — which tallies exactly with the in- 
tellectual and analytical science of love practised by the Pre- 
cieuses. In the Suite du Menteur, Cliton and Lyse ridicule 
the lovemaking of high society, which we have just pictured in 
the words of the characters of the Comedies. Cliton says to Lyse : 

Nos maitres font l'amour, nous le ferons aussi. 
J'aurai mille beaux mots tous les jours a te dire: 
Je coucherai de feux, de sanglots, de martyre: 
Je te dirai: " Je meurs, je suis dans les abois. 
Jebrule. . . ." 7 

These last expressions would seem to be the style just then, for 
in the corresponding scene and speech of the Spanish play, other 

1 V. Martinenche: op. tit., 143. 

2 M-L, II, 38, 11. 385-386. 

3 M-L, II, 51, 11. 621 ff. 
4 II, 137, 1. 223. 

5 V. Differentes manieres d'estime, de Lerine a Anaxandre, Som. I, 121 ff. 
« V. M-L, II, 290, 1. 1300. 
7 M-L, IV, pp. 301, 11. 222 ff. 



48 



expressions of a gallant are given as being the passing fashion. 1 
The two characters mentioned above furnish us with a final 
contrast between refined and more sensual love, and Lyse speaks as 
though the precieux philosophy of love had been long recognized. 

"Eh quoi! pauvre ignorant, ne sais-tu pas encore 
Qu'il faut suivre l'humeur de celle qu'on adore, 
Se rendre complaisant, vouloir ce qu'elle veut?" 2 

However, this philosophy of service in love, like other generally 
accepted attributes of the Precieuses, was, of course, of long stand- 
ing, and was merely accentuated and given a characteristic turn 
by these delicate-minded society ladies. 

The effect of this service of love as shown in the characters 
of the Comedies, is also typical of the theories held by con- 
temporary society. Philiste of the Veuve might well have 
drawn his opinions from the conversation of the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet. His broad hint to Clarice on the symptoms of true love 
might be compared to certain of the letters of Voiture to fair 
members of the coterie in question. 3 

Un esprit amoureux, absent de ce qu'il aime, 
Par sa mauvaise humeur fait trop voir ce qu'il est: 
Toujours morne, reveur, triste, tout lui deplaft: 
A tout autre propos qu'a celui de sa flamme, 
Le silence a la bouche, et le chagrin en Tame, 
Son oeil semble a regret nous donner ses regards, 
Et les jette a la fois souvent de toutes parts, 
Qu'ainsi sa fonction confuse ou mal guidee 
Se ramene en soi-meme, et ne voit qu'une idee: 
Mais aupres de Pobjet qui possede son coeur, 
Ses esprits ranimes reprennent leur vigueur : 
Gai, complaisant, actif. . . . 4 

Let Lysandre of La Galerie du Palais complete the effect on 
the lover produced by his sweetheart's presence: for 

II n'en faut point doubter, l'amour a des tendresses 
Que nous n'apprenons point qu'aupres de nos mattresses. 

1 V. Lope de Vega: op. cit., II, 446, col. 3. — Limon's speech which mentions 
"Un lindlsimo mancebo Destes que dicen action, En substantia, reduction 
Y to do vocablo nuevo". 

2 M-L, IV, 375, 11. 1625 ft. 

3 To Mile, Paulet, for instance. 

4 M-L, I, 417, 11. 346 ff. 



49 



Tant de sorte(s) d'appas, de doux saisissements, 
D'agreables langueurs et de ravissements, 
Jusques ou d'un bel oeil peut etendre l'empire, 
Et mille autres secrets que Ton ne sauroit dire. 1 

Lysandre apparently has penetrated these secrets of love: for 
he practises a subtle analysis — sign of Preciosite — on Dorimant. 

Ce desir, a vrai dire, est un amour naissant 
Qui ne sait ou se prendre, et demeure impuissant : 
II s'egare et se perd dans cette incertitude: 
Et renaissant toujours de ton inquietude, 
II te montre un objet d'autant plus souhaite, 
Que plus sa connaissance a de difficulte. 
C'est par la que ton feu davantage s'allume: 
Moins on Pa pu connoitre, et plus on en presume: 
Notre ardeur curieuse en augmente le prix. 2 

Such a person, expert to ''lire dans les esprits" and to dissect the 
"ressorts d'un ame", would have held a prominent position in con- 
temporary fashionable society, where discussions of love after 
the style of those in the Astree, were in vogue at this time. 

The subtle analysis of one's own love affairs is also charac- 
teristic of the time. This is comparable to the long discussions 
in the contemporary novels, and due to some extent, perhaps, 
to the extensive leisure of society people at the time. At the very 
commencement of the Melite, s Eraste carefully analyzes his 
own amourous situation as affected by his sweetheart Melite. 
The length of similar discussions, especially when presented on 
the stage, has the effect of drawn-out insipidity, and often lends 
itself to ridicule, but is certainly related to Preciosite. 

After the theoretical conduct of love from the beginning, it 
will be well to look at the more concrete side. At first glance 
Corneille's frequent mention of a period of two years' court- 
ship as extensive might seem significant. 4 It might be thought to 
refer to his own courtship of the much-confused " Melite", or 
imply a clearly understood rule of some sort. Tallemant, in the 
relation of his own love affairs, mentions the fact that the Abbe 

1 II, 27, 11. 157 ff. 

2 M-L, II, 32, 267 ff. 

3 Q. v. M-L, I, p. 143 ff. 

4 M-L, 1, 166, 1. 413; 208, 1. 1084; 399, 1. 5; II, 80, 1. 1170; 438, 1. 71; IV, 182, 
1. 744. 



50 



de Cerisy, "un des plus beaux esprits du siecle", had been in love 
with a certain widow for more than two years, as though two years 
were a sufficient period to test constancy in love. 1 Presumably 
such has been considered the case even up to the present, and the 
"two" probably indicates that and nothing more, — especially as 
in the Spanish parallel to the mention in the Menteur, is found the 
two-year period also. 2 Average experience, then, is here taken 
into account, rather than exceptional cases like Montausier's 
courtship of Julie which consumed a much longer period. 

After courtship comes marriage, and here Corneille, while 
holding fast to the customs of his time, gives both the precieuse 
idea and the bourgeois idea. To the Precieux, as to the free 
bachelor, marriage is a burden and marks the end of love. Tircis 
of the Melite tells Eraste that however lovable a beauty may be 

Pour en perdre le gout, on n'a qu'a l'epouser. 3 

Et l'hymen de soi-meme est un si lourd fardeau 
Qu'il faut l'apprehender a Pegal du tombeau. 3a 

Clarice of the Menteur takes a view, which, outwardly the 
opposite of the generally accepted precieuse idea, inwardly 
must have often forced its truth on the consciousness of the 
individual Precieuse. She openly faces the facts: 

Chaque moment d'attente ote de notre prix, 

Et fille qui viellit tombe dans le mepris: 

C'est un nom glorieux qui se garde avec honte, 

Sa defaite est facheuse a moins que d'etre prompte, 

Le temps n'est pas un Dieu qu'elle puisse braver, 

Et son honneur se perd a le trop conserver. 4 

— which ends with a curious example of the " pointe", showing the 
tenacity of precieuse influence. Whatever the theories of the 
Precieuse of this period, in the end the annals of the time reveal 
to us that she generally yielded, "puisqu'il faut qu'elle cede", 
and often, too, we fear, "A qui paiera le mieux le bien qu'elle 

1 Tallemant: Historiettes, X, 90. 

2 V. Alarc6n: op. cit., 331, col. 2, bot. 

3 M-L, I, 147, 11. 83 ff . 

"■ M-L, I, 148, 11. 99-100. 

* M-L, IV, 163, 11. 435 ff. This ia not in the Spanish original. 



51 



possede". 1 The mariage de convenance was an important in- 
stitution at this period, just as it tends to be at all times in the 
family-unit status of French society. Chrysante in the Veuve 
intimates that the "meilleures maisons" are founded on the 
"solides raisons" of property-marriages. 2 The same character 
later in the play refers to the fact that this "maudit usage" 
was in force in her youth. Geraste of the Suivante sums up the 
argument for solemn common sense when he says : 

Ou les conditions n'ont point d'egalite, 
L'amour ne se fait guere avec sincerite. 3 

Though young hearts often fail to regard the warnings of ex- 
perience, in the conflict with parental authority they often yield. 
Walckenaer tells us "L'inegalite des rangs et des conditions 
etablissaient des barrieres dont l'amour s'effarouchait, et qu'il 
cherchait rarement a franchir". 4 This bears out what we have 
said above and is true in a broad sense. It is also true that 
parental authority was firmly exerted in the same direction, 
becoming an important factor in the matter. In the Veuve, 
Chrysante tells Geron, who asks what her daughter says about 
her proposed marriage with Florame, that her daughter Doris 
"suivra mon choix", yet her parents, it seems, had parted her 
lover from her, and had made her marry the husband of their 
choice much against her will. 5 In the Illusion Comique, Isabelle 
inveighs against this unfeeling custom by which parents forced 
their daughters (and sons) to marry where wealth and position 
beckoned. She exclaims: 

Un amour veritable 
S'attache seulement a ce qu'il voit aimable. 
Qui regarde les biens ou la condition 
N'a qu'un amour avare, ou plein d'ambition, 
Et souille lachement par ce melange infame 
Les plus nobles desirs qu'enfante une belle ame. 
Je sais bien que mon pere a d'autres sentiments, 
Et mettra de l'obstaele a nos contentments: 

1 M-L, I, 209, 11. 1107-1108. 

2 M-L, I, 413, 11. 282 ft. 

3 M-L, II, 171, 11. 835-836. 

4 Walckenaer: op. tit., I, p. 83. 
6 V. M-L, I, 490, 11. 1761 ff. 



I 



52 



Mais l'amour sur mon coeur a pris trop de puissance 
Pour ecouter encore les lois de la naissance. 
Mon pere peut beaucoup, mais bien moins que ma foi : 
II a choisi pour lui, je veux choisir pour moi". 1 

This earnestness seems to indicate that CorneihVs own views are 
being expressed. 2 At any rate love is certain to find some way to 
outwit parents as it did with Isabelle, and this was the usual 
method (for the lover to abduct his sweetheart). This done, 
several ways were open, — one the protection of the courts. This 
course of action is not precieuse. It is opposed to the spirit 
of preciosite, but represents the state of affairs in outer society 
at the time these plays were written. Tallemant, for example, 
tells of the exercise of parental authority in the case of La 
Presidente de Pommereuil, who "se jeta aux genoux de son pere: 
mais en vain". So at last she consented to marry her father's 
candidate for husband, though she hoped till the last her own 
lover would run away with her. 3 Other parallels in real life ex- 
isted, — as the carrying off of a widow against her will in the 
Veuve, duplicated by the exploit of Bussy-Rabutin related by 
Walckenaer. 4 The retirement of Angelique to a convent on 
account of misfortune in love we fine equalled later by that of 
Mile. Du Vigean (1645). 5 

The general language of the characters of Corneille's Comedies 
bears out the statement of his inclination to preciosite. La 
Bruyere, apparently referring to the later years of the Hotel 
de Rambouillet, says: 

"II a regne pendant quelque temps une sorte de conversation 
fade et puerile, qui roulait sur des questions frivoles qui avait 
relation au coeur et a ce qu'en appellc passion ou tendresse: la 
lecture de quelques romans les avait introduites parmi les plus 
honnetes gens de la ville et de la cour: ils s'en sont defaits et la 
bourgeoisie les a reeues avec les pointes et les Equivoques", 6 
and goes on to speak of the peculiar sensitiveness of the Pre- 

1 M-L, II, 459, 11. 505 ft. 

2 V. Act III, Sc. I. the interesting discussion on this subject between 
Isabelle and her father, where the daughter's words rise to a Shakespearean 
nobility. V. also Philiste in similar role, I, p. 445. 

3 Tallemant: op. cit., VII, 30-31. 

4 V. Walckenaer: op. cit., 1, 128 fL 

6 Mile, de Montpensier: Memoires, I, pp. 107-108. 
6 La Bruyere: Caracteres (Nelson ed.), p. 200. 



53 

cieuses in the matter of words and terms which they considered 
to be coarse, and the unusual turns of precieuse conversation. 
Naturally the characters of the Comedies converse more especially 
about love, and they do so after the "fade" and gallant manner 
of the day, — sometimes with little earnestness. Philandre says 
to Cloris: 

Tu n 'y vois (in his eyes) que mon coeur, qui n'a plus un seul trait 
Que ceux qu'il a recus de ton charmant portrait, 
Et que tout aussitot que tu t'es fait paraitre, 
Afin de te mieux voir s'est mis a la fenetre. 1 

This is an excellent example of the French correspondent of 
Marinism. The artificiality of it is at once apparent. A good 
example of the paraphrase, also in vogue at the time, and later 
accepted as a standard element of precieuse style, is these two 
lines, delivered by Philiste in the Veuve: 

Si blesse des regards de quelque beau visage, 
Mon coeur de sa franchise avoit perdu l'usage. 2 

Pointes, sometimes regarded as the final test of precieuse style, 
are not lacking, and at least once are so noticeable they are 
remarked by the characters themselves. 

In the Place Royale, Angelique, who is in wrathful conversation 
with Alidor, says of her mirror and her shortcomings: 

C'est dedans son crystal que je les etudie: 
Mais apres il s'en tait et moi je remedie: 
II m'en donne un avis sans me les reprocher, 
Et me les d£couvrant, il m'aide a les cacher. 3 

upon which Alidor remarks, "Vous etes en colere et vous dites 

1 M-L, I, 159, 11. 307 ff. See also the whole of this scene, and Alcippe in the 
Menteur : 

Si du jour qui s'enfuit la lumiere est fidele, 
Je pense l'entrevoir avec son Isabelle. 
— which possibly owes something of its absurdity to the exigencies of rhyme. 
This is not contained in Alarco'n. 
V. M-L, IV, 186, 11. 841-842. 
V. Alarc6n: op. tit., p. 332, Sc. XIII. 

2 M-L, I. 416, 11. 341-342. 
J M-L, II, 243, 11. 381 ff. 



54 



des pointes". Truly one must be impregnated with the polite 
style of the time (1633) to use it even in anger, and Corneille 
seems to think Alidor's explanation is needed, by way of extenua- 
tion. Phylis' pointe in the same play is almost humorous, though 
spoken with serious intent. Alidor has become her lover after 
abducting her, and in explaining this to Angelique, she tells her 

Et je ne l'ai ravi qu'apres qu'il m'a ravie l 
which is a perfect example of the double use of the same word 
with different meanings. A longer — yet similarly perfect — in- 
stance of the pointe or concetto is found in Clarice's remarks on 
Dorante's sudden expression of love in the Menteur: 

Cette flamme, Monsieur, est pour moi fort nouvelle, 
Puisque j'en viens de voir la premiere etincelle. 
Si votre coeur ainsi s'embrase en un moment, 
Le mien ne sut jamais brtjler si promptement: 
Mais peut-etre, a present que j'en suis avertie, 
Le temps donnera place a plus de sympathie. 
Confessez cependant qu'a tort vous murmurez 
Du mepris de vos feux, que j'avais ignores. 2 

This passage shows an inclination to linger over a concetto 
which occurs to the mind perhaps by chance, — and this is 
peculiarly characteristic of the Precieuses after 1640. 

The earlier comedies also mark their time by the display of 
cool and polished' gallantry. Even Tircis' speech to M elite 
when she is ready to show her love for him, is gallant, rather than 
loving. 3 This perfect failure of the emotions to lend warmth to 
the corresponding words rightly reaches its height in Alcidon's 
protestations to Doris in the Veuve. 4 " This is the manner of the 
galant homme or honnete homme, — ahvays the preoccupation of 
the mind of the polite society of the seventeenth century. In 
the Galerie du Palais, Aronte, thinking to flatter Celidee, tells 
her that after herself and her friends 

i M-L, II, 296, 1. 1419. 

2 IV, pp. 147-148. It is noteworthy that the La Verdad Sospechosa merely 
contains for these lines the following: 

Para querer 
No pienso que ha menester 
Licencia la voluntad. . . . Alarc<5n: op. cit., p. 324, col. 2. 

3 V. M-L, I, 184, 11. 701 ff. 

4 V. M-L, I, pp. 432 ff., Act II, Sc. V. 



55 



il n'est rien clans Paris, 
Et je n'en sache point, pour belles qu'on les nomme, 
Qui puissent attirer les yeux d'un honnete homme. 1 

Celidee herself is beloved by Lysandre, "le plus accompli des 
hommes de son age," 2 and Cleandre in the Suite shows that the 
Honnete Homme was still in favor. 3 We have seen a portrait of 
such a man in the person of the Due de Bellegarde, to whom 
Voiture wrote, "sans autres charmes que ceux de votre personne, 
vous avez eu dans la guerre et dans l'amour les plus heureux 
succez qui s'y peuvent souhaiter. Aussi, a considerer cette 
courtoisie si exacte et qui ne s'est jamais dementie, cette grace si 
charmante dont vous gagnes les volontez de tous ceux qui vous 
voyent, et cette grandeur et fermete d'ame qui ne vous a jamais 
permis d'aller contre le devoir, ni mesme contre la bien-seance, 
il est bien difficile de ne se pas imaginer que vous estes de la 
race des Amadis". 4 Bassompierre was also an example of the 
"honnete homme" at the beginning of the century, — "si bien 
qu'on donnait son nom a ceux qui excellaient en bonne mine 
et proprete, en force et en courage". 5 These characters of 
Corneille's comedies are especially well fitted for their role of 
seventeenth-century gentlemen, for, as we read in the Grand 
Cyrus, "Nul ne peut etre honnete homme acheve qui n'a point 
aime, e'est-a-dire cherche a plaire". 6 It is to be expected that 
the politeness of members of a society such as this will be some- 
what pompous and recherche, — as expressed in the thanks of 
Clarice to Celidan in the Veuve, 7 or of Cleandre to Dorante in 
the Suite, 8 and in the gracious replies. 9 

The Comedies betray other turns of expression characteristic 
of the polite society of this period, as in the recurrence of the 
term "lis et roses" 10 of description often used in the "portraits". 
The mildness and elegance of these flowers is symbolic. Sainte- 

1 II, 20, 11. 64 ff. 
2 II, 46, 1. 503. 

3 V. M-L, IV, 316, 1. 500. 

4 Voiture: Lettres (Uzanne), Lettre III, pp. 20-21 of Vol. I. 
5 DuBled, op. cit., p. 177. 

6 Du Bled: op. cit., p. 244; and Cousin: Soc, II, p. 7, n. 

7 M-L, I, pp. 4S0 ff. 
8 IV, 331, 11. 795 ff. 

9 Cf. some examples of Voiture' s thanks to Mile. Paulet, and Lettres, 
passim. 
l0 V. M-L, 1, 412, 1. 259; II, 27, 1. 171. 



56 



Beuve similarly speaks of the letters of the Duchess de Longueville 
to Godeau as being "toutes pleines de myrtes et de roses". 1 
The use of Greek and pastoral surnames, frequent in Corneilie's 
plays 2 as in those of other writers, and generall} r considered 
characteristic of the Precieuses, apparently had become customary 
during the sixteenth century. 3 

In spite of the specific instances mentioned, and the fact that 
the Comedies taken as a whole mark clearly the influence of the 
fashionable milieu of Rouen and Paris on Corneille during this 
period, now and then Corneille turns from the second nature, — 
if we may call it so — the veneer of polish, the affectation, the 
subtle analysis, the exaggerated speech, — all of which was in 
accord with the seventeenth century idea that nature unadorned 
was in some way imperfect and crude and needed to be decked out 
elegantly to coincide with refined tastes — "Quand la nature 
manque, il la faut corriger " : — Corneille now and again turns from 
this artificial view and gives in his Comedies natural touches 
which are lasting, for elemental human nature does not change 
essentially. 

How natural is Clarice's soliloquy at the end of the First Act 
of the Veuve, 4 when her womanly impatience at Philiste's reserved 
lovemaking, breaks forth into 

Ah! que ne devient-il un peu plus temeraire? 
Que ne s'expose-t-il au hasard de me plaire? 
Amour, gagne a la fin ce respect ennuyeux, 
Et rends-ie moins timide, ou Tote de mes yeux. 5 

Some of the conversations are both natural and humorous, as that 
of Celidan and the Nourrice in the Veuve, where, after his sus- 
picions are aroused, he skilfully draws on the Nourrice to admit 
.the plot and even Alcidon's name. 6 Then in the Suivante, the 
scene in which Daphnis attempts to get rid of her suivante 
Amarante so that she may talk freely with Florame, is not without 
humor, from the spectator's point of view, and is natural and 
human be} T ond all thought of pose. 7 In the Suite du Menteur, 

1 Sainte-Beuve : Portraits Litteraires, p. 324. 

2 V. M-L, I, 149, 1. 113; 403, 1. 181 and 1S2; 416, 1. 325, etc.; v. also names 
of characters in various plays. 

3 Da Bled: op. ciL, pp. 117-118. 

4 1 , pp. 418-419. 5 V. M-L, I, p. 419, 11. 389 ff. 

6 V. Veuve, Act IV, Sc. VI; M-L, I, p. 471. 

7 V. M-L, II, pp. 148 ff., esp. p. 151. 



57 



Cliton gives a natural and graphic description of the wedding 
that failed. All was ready, — 

Vous (Dorante) ne nous temoigniez qu'ardeuret qu'allegresse, 

Qu'impatients desirs de posseder Lucrece: 

L'argent etoit touche, les accords publies, 

Les festin commande, les parents convies, 

Les violons choisis, ainsi que la journee: 

Rien ne semblait plus sur qu'une si proche hymenee. 

But the wedding guests were doomed to unhappy surprise. 
Dorante departed without warning, and 

Comme il ne fut jamais d'eclipse plus obscur, 

Chacun sur ce depart forma sa conjecture: 

Tous s'entre-regardoient etonnes, ebahis: 

L'un disoit: "II est jeune, il veut voir le pays": 

L'autre: "II s'est alle battre, il a quelque querelle": 

L'autre d'une autre idee embrouilloit sa cervelle. . . .* 

Then of a yet different sort of naturalness is Dorante's finished 
specimen of falsehood delivered to his father in the Menteur, in 
which he describes how he fell in love with a certain lady of 
Poitiers, and the circumstances by reason of which he came to 
marry her. The superabundance of details — a marked charac- 
teristic of the ready liar — serves to make the deceit more natural. 
Nothing is forgotten of that eventful evening, not even the date, 
which adds to the probability. 

Un soir que je venois de monter dans sa chambre 
(Ce fut, s'il m'en souvient, le second de septembre: 
Oui, ce fut ce jour-la que je fus attrape). 2 

Beside the style of contemporary polite society and the style 
of nature unadorned, Corneille sometimes turns back to the 
mythological or classic, as poets of the century often did. Eraste 
of the Melite seems to be a classic poet hymning his lady, rather 
than a lover in reality, when he says of Melite, in conversing 
with Tircis, , 

Le jour qu'elle naquit, Venus, bien qu'immortelle, 
Pensa mourir de honte en la voyant si belle: 

1 V. M-L, IV, p. 290. 

a M-L, IV, 175, 11. 617-619. 



58 

Les Graces, a l'envie, descendirent cles cieux, 
Pour se dormer l'honneur d'accompagner ses yeux: 
Et F Amour, qui ne peut entrer dans son courage, 
Voulut obstinement loger sur son visage. 1 

Later in the play when he becomes insane, he does not forget 
his classic allusions to the Fates and Styx and Elysian Fields. 2 
This is Corneille's earlier and less original style, it seems, for 
such allusions become rarer as his comedies appear. 

1 1, 147, 11. 73-79. 

2 V. M-L, I, pp. 220 ff. Such allusions, of course, are frequent in writers 
from the early Greeks to the present day. In passing we might note that 
Somaize, in his Comedy of the Veritables Precieuses, makes use of classic 
allusions for light satire. V. Somaize: Dictionnaire, II, p. 25, etc. 



VI. CONCLUSION. 

In this investigation I have given a definite view of the develop- 
ment of the principal philosophic and literary theories of the 
Hotel de Rambouillet, and have shown the unusual influence 
which they had on Corneille's Comedies. I have shown that the 
gathering mentioned was composed of a varied membership with 
tastes running from riotous gayety to great seriousness. I have 
brought out the unnoticed fact that the similar society of Rouen 
and not this society, influenced Corneille in the years immediately 
preceding the production of the first five Comedies, and that his 
connection with the Hotel de Rambouillet was not at all close 
until just before the publication of the last two Comedies, which 
give evidence of the direct influence of a developed precieux 
style. During these years studied gallantry was changing to 
preciosite and losing its grip on earthly and corporeal things to 
become an intellectual phantom. By the time Corneille's last 
Comedy was produced, preciosite had refined the Hotel de Ram- 
bouillet and its train in so far as was possible, and the descent to 
over-refinement, growing constantly more ridiculous, was begun. 
This gradual process is mirrored in the Comedies. The " fade " and 
stiff, or at any rate cool, gallantry disappears and its place is 
taken — also gradually — by preciosite, which is its true successor, 
and which differs from it principally by greater and more subtle 
skill in dissertation, and in the rhetorical development of its 
" concetti". 

I have found unusually close parallels between incidents and 
characters of contemporary life and those of the Comedies. 
By a careful comparison of the Spanish originals with the last two 
Comedies I have been able to show not only the changes made in 
local color, but also the solution of certain connected problems, — 
among which, the scene of Dorante's banquet in the Menteur. I 
have proved that the entire coloring of these Comedies is con- 
temporary, and have indicated the converging influences which 
account for the preciosite thereof, — the influence of novels, 
particularly of the Astree, the potency of which in polite society 
is apparent from the time of its publication, 1 — the Spanish influ- 

1 Boileau says it "fut fort estime, meme des gens du gout le plus exquis" — ■ 
Discours, introducing the dialog of Les Heros de Roman (Kuhn's ed. p. 71, 
Heath and Co.)- We might add these were the persons to whom it appealed 
most of all, and upon whom much of its popularity depended. 



GO 



ence, the influence of the polite societies of Rouen and Paris. 
Then by illustration I have called attention to a certain fresh- 
ness and naturalness coming from Corneille's own personality. 

My investigation makes it clear that Corneille's Comedies 
as a whole reflect with a fidelity approaching that of a mirror 
contemporary scenes and incidents and the precieuse philosophy 
and style during the period of greatest change and perfection in 
the latter. 



VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

General. 
1. Primarily Historical. 

Danjou et Cimber: Archives Curieuses de FHistoire de France. Paris, 

Beauvais, 1837. 

Valuable collection of original material on the history of France. 
Memoires Relatifs a FHistoire de France. Ed. by Petitot, Paris, Foucault, 

1819. 

As the title indicates, a collection of historical memoirs, not especially 

useful for our purposes. 
Lavisse (Ernest): Histoire de France (Many collaborators), Vol. VI, Pt. 

II, by Jean H. Mariejol. Paris, Hachette, Copyright 1911. 

A recent general history of France by specialists, edited by the dean of 

French Historians. Comprehensive and scholarly. 
Hanotaux (Gabriel) : La France en 1614. Paris, Nelson, 1913? 

An extremely interesting picture of Seventeenth Century France and 

especially of Paris, by a well-known authority. 

See also Memoires listed below under Precieuse Society. 

2. Literary. 

Brunetiere (F.): Histoire de la Litterature Frangaise Classique, Vol. II, 

Ed. by Rene Doumic. Paris, Delagrave, 1912. 

A general history of classic French literature by the foremost evolutionistic 

critic, continued after his death by his disciples from his manuscript 

notes and plans, reports of his lectures, his critical essays, etc. 
Faguet (Emile): Dix-Septieme Siecle. Paris, Soc. Fr. D'Imprimerie et 

de Librairie, 1903. 

A series of philosophical essays on the most famous men of letters of the 

Century by the foremost living French critic. 
Lanson (Gustave) : Histoire de la Litterature Frangaise. Paris, Hachette, 

1903. 

A scientifically accurate philosophical history by a prominent French 

professor. 
Le Breton (Andre): Le Roman au Dix-Septieme Siecle. Paris, Hachette, 

1890. 

A somewhat disconnected series of studies on the principal novels of the 

century by an authority. 
Lintilhac (Eugene) : La Comedie (III of Histoire Gcnerale du Theatre en 

France). Paris, Flammarion, 1908? 

An authoritative work on the Comedy of the period. 
Martinenche (Ernest): La Comedia Espagnole en France de Hardy a 

Racine. Paris, Hachette, 1900. 

Valuable for an understanding of the general relation between the French 

and Spanish stage, as exemplified by the Illusion Comique, Menteur and 

Suite du Menteur. 



02 



Petit de Julleville: Histoire de la Langue et de la Litterature Francaise. 

Paris, Armand Colin (var. collaborators). 

A valuable history with extensive extracts, but which must be used with 

some caution on account of the many collaborators. 
Petit de Julleville : Le Theatre en France, 7th ed. Paris, Armand Colin, 

1908. 

Chiefly useful as presenting a fairly faithful review in compact form. 
Reure (O-C.) : La Vie et les Oeuvres de Honore D'Urfe. Paris, Plon-Nourrit, 

1910. 

A full and interesting work by one who brings deep love and the results 

of lifelong study to the task. Considers the love-theories of the As.tr ee. 
Sainte-Beuve : Causeries du Lundi. Paris, Gamier, 1857-1862. 

Critical essays by a master. 
Strowski (Fortunat): Pascal et son Temps, Part II. Paris, Plon-Nourrit 

1910. 

Establishes some facts of Corneille's life and indicates the relation between 

the society of Paris and of Rouen. 
Fitzmaurice-Kelly (James): Litterature Espagnole, traduction de Henry- 

D. Davray. Paris, Armand Colin, 1904. 

Probably the most authoritative among recent histories of Spanish 

Literature. 

Texts. 

Corneille (Pierre): Oeuvres, Ed. by Ch. Marty-Laveaux. Paris, Ha- 

chette, 1862. 

By far the best and most scholarly edition of Corneille's works, with full 

historical notes. 
Corneille (Pierre): Oeuvres, avec Le Commentaire de Voltaire et les 

Jugements de La Harpe. Paris, Ladrange, MDCCCXXVII. 

Considerably below the preceding, but containing interesting dramatic 

criticism. 
Alarcon (Juan Ruiz de): Comedias, Ed. by Hartzenbusch: in Biblioteca de 

Autores Espafioles, Vol. XX. Madrid, 1907. 

Standard Spanish edition used for comparison of Le Menteur with La 

Verdad Sospechosa on which it is founded. 
Lope Felix de Vega Carpio : Comedias escogidas : in Biblioteca de Autores 

Espafioles, Vol. XXXIV. Madrid, Rivadeneyra, 1872. 

Convenient edition of Lope's best plays. Used for comparison of La 

Suite du Menteur with its Spanish original, Amar Sin Saber a Quien. 

For discussion of the dates of the Comedies see : 
Modern Language Notes, Jan., 1915 — Art. on "The Dates of Corneille's 

Early Plays," by H. Carrington Lancaster. 

The principal sources of evidence and the inferences generally drawn 

therefrom are summarized and discussed. 
On Corneille. 
Bouquet (F.) : Points Obscurs et Nouveaux de la Vie de Pierre Corneille. 

Paris, Hachette, 1888. 

A really valuable work based on well-chosen documents. Used by 

Lanson in his well-known life of Corneille. 



63 



Guizot: Corneille and his Times. New York, Harper and Brothers, 1852. 

Not scientific, but contains useful material and notes on sources. 
Lanson (Gustave) : Corneille. Paris, Hachette, 1909. 

Probably the best life of Corneille. 

For Corneille see also general histories of literature and notices in the 

various editions of his works. 

On Precieuse Society. 
1. Original. 

Chapelain (Jean): Lettres, Ed. by Ph. Tamizey de Larroque. Paris, 

Imprimerie Nationale, MDCCCLXXX. 

Letters by the Secretary of the French Academy, who was also a member 

of the Hotel de Rambouillet. Contains ideas on pedantic women, the 

group of the Viscountess d'Auchy, precieuse expressions, etc. 
Chapelle et Bachaumont: Voyage en Languedoc: in "Voyages en France", 

Paris, Chaumerot, 1808. 

Somewhat overrated contemporary account of travels through Southern 

France. Contains description of Precieuses of Montpellier. 
Colombey (Emile): La Journee des Madrigaux, suivie de la Gazette de 

Tendre, etc. Paris, Aubry, MDCCCLVI. 

Two original "monuments" of later polite society. 
Colombey (Emile) : Ruelles, Salons et Cabarets. Paris, Delahays, 1858. 

Curious anecdotal descriptions containing considerable original matter 

interspersed. 
Les Lois de la Galanterie (1644). Paris, Aubry, MDCCCLV. 

Interesting as showing the trend of ideas. 
Lanson (Gustave): Choix de Lettres du XVII e Siecle. 10th ed. revised. 

Paris, Hachette, 1913. 

Convenient collection of letters by principal letterwriters, including 

several on Precieuses and Pedantes, and illustrations of precieuse style. 
Montpensier (Mlle. de) : Memoires. Paris, Charpentier, 1858. 

Among the best historical memoires of the time. Depicts court society. 
Motteville (Mme. de) : Memoires. Paris, Charpentier, 1855. 

Not so good as the preceding, but containing useful indications of Spanish 

influence on French manners, etc. 
Somaize: Dictionnaire des Precieuses, ed. by Ch.-L. Livet. Paris, Jannet, 

MDCCCLVI. 

A valuable work and undoubtedly correct in general spirit, though 

evidently based on extreme selections from the novels of the time. Has 

a good introduction by a student of prScieuse society. 
Sorel (Charles) : La Vraie Histoire Comique de Francion. Paris, Garnier, 

1877. 

An early realistic and satirical novel, used here for its description of a 

precieuse gathering at the early date of c. 1622. 
Tallemant des Reaux: Historiettes. 3 me ed. par Monmerque. Paris, 

Garnier. 

The principal original source for precieuse society. The author is very 

fond of scandal. 



64 



Voiture (V.): Lettres, ed. by Octave Uzanne. Paris, Librairie des Biblio- 
philes, MDCCCLXXX. 

Letters of the master of light poetry and chief entertainer of the Hotel 
de Rambouillet. Contains excellent examples of precieuse style, but is 
not so permeated by this style as often thought. Valuable also for in- 
formation on occupations of precieuse society. 

2. Secondary. 

Colombey (Emile): Ruelles, Salons et Cabarets. Paris, Delahays, 1858. 

Already mentioned. Contains some information on society outside of 

precieuse gatherings. 
Cousin (Victor): La Societe Francaise au XVII e Siecle. New ed., Paris, 

Perrin, 1905. 

The best-known secondar} 7 work on this society, but it lacks a sufficiently 

broad foundation, being based on one great novel (Le Grand Gyrus). 

Cousin also has the laudable, but somewhat unfortunate ability of seeing 

only the good in the society of the Hotel de Rambouillet. 
: La Jeunesse de Mme. de Longueville. Paris, Didier, 1882. 

By the same author. Contains further details on precieuse society. 

Very useful. 

Idp 2 " What has already been said of this work, and of the author's ideal- 
izing tendency applies to his other similar works mentioned immediately 

below. 
: Madame de Chevreuse. Paris, Perrin, 1886. 

V. remark above. 
: Madame de Hautfort. Paris, Perrin, 1886. 

V. remark on second preceding title. 
: Madame de Sable. Paris, Didier, 1882. 

V. remark on third preceding title. 
Crane (T. F.) : La Societe Franchise au Dix-septieme Siecle. New York, 

G. P. Putnam's Sons. 

A very useful collection of important extracts from descriptive and 

satirical sources on precieuse society. 
Du Bled (Victor) : La Societe Frangaise du XVI e Siecle au XX e Siecle, 

l er Scrie. Paris, Perrin, 1903. 

Lectures more polished than scholarly, but giving some usable indications 

of sixteenth century polite society. 
Fidao-Justiniaxi (J.-E.) : L' Esprit Classique et la Preciosite au XVII e Siecle. 

Paris, Picard, 1914. 

Useful here for discussion of pedantic Precieuses, — as Mile, de Gournay. 
Livet (Ch.-L.) : Precieux et Precieuses. Paris, Didier, 1859. 

Has helpful information and a somewhat erroneous distinction of pedantic 

and gallant Precieuses discussed in the body of this thesis. 
Lorix (F.): Une Soiree au Chateau de Rambouillet en novembre, 1636. 

Rambouillet, Douchin, 1891. 

Contains some information concerning this society based on authentic 

sources and not to be found in other secondary works. 
Magne (Emile): Scarron et son milieu. Paris, Mercure de France, MCMV. 

Gives some details of seventeenth-century Paris and on non-polite society. 



65 



Magnb (Emile) : Voiture et les origines de l'Hotel de Rambouillet, 1597-1635. 
Paris, Mercure de France, MCMXI. 

This and the following companion volume are very valuable. The 
author is evidently considerably indebted to Cousin, but presents a 
helpful contrast to him in being somewhat fond of scandal. He has 
found a considerable amount of new or comparatively unnoticed material, 
and the volumes besides containing valuable notes are carefully indexed. 

Voiture et les annees de gloire de l'Hotel de Rambouillet, 1635-1648. 

Paris, Mercure de France, MCMXII. 
V. remark on preceding title. 

Walckenaer: Memoires touchant la vie et les ecrits de Marie de Rabutin- 
Chantal, Dame de Bourbilly, Marquise de Sevigne. Paris, Firmin 
Didot, 1856. 

A monumental work, much of which is concerned with Bussy-Rabutin, 
worldly cousin of Mme. de Sevigne. Some of the author's remarks on 
Corneille are unsupported by proof, as we have had occasion to indicate. 
Generally considered, a valuable secondary work on precieuse society. 



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